


Sacred Grove

by AnriXAnri



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Zelda - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:07:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21542725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnriXAnri/pseuds/AnriXAnri
Summary: "Does he have a name?""I dunno. You said he's the missing link, so let's just call him Link!"When a boy raised by faeries stumbles out of the lost woods, immune to the miasma that cloaks all of Hyrule in scourge, he along with two others set out on a quest to uncover the tri-force, and return the dying land back to its former self.*Will tag characters as they are introduced.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 45





	1. Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> OKAAAY so. This whole fic is going to be equal parts exercise, experiment and experience for me. And just maybe to keep busy until botw 2 rolls out. I've always wanted to see Loz with an intricate story that's deeply driven by it's characters, but that aint gonna happen no time soon so imma do it myself. I'd be honored if anyone cares to come along for the ride, because it's gonna be a long one. Loosely set in the world of botw but lots of call backs from across the franchise.

_“_ **_WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?”_ **

The question rung out like a shockwave.

Hair standing on end, nerves on edge, the small congregation of faeries lowered their gaze, though a brave and rather nosey few peered out the corner of their eye to spectate. 

They watched a young child, no more than a few years old as he trembled before the towering, ethereal being. She stood in the center of a pool as light ran across the water’s surface in rippling waves to the edge of the fountain; usually in rhythm with the faint lullaby that always echoed throughout the Great Faerie fountain, but right now that lullaby seemed to disappear into the white noise of running water as a tense silence cut through the air.

“. . . I . . . I-” the child mumbled.

_“_ You WHAT _?”_ The Great Faerie shouted, causing the child to flinch so badly he lost balance and fell over.

“I-I’m sorry!” The child cried before breaking into little high pitched sobs.

All of the anger in the Great Faerie’s icy expresion dissolved into guilt.

“. . . Oh Link . . .” She said in a soft breath.

A great fog rose up around the pool where her massive figure stood, completely cloaking her until out from the mist she strode out, standing at a less impressive size no taller than your average woman. And if you were able to take look past the bright blue hair, glowing, grey eyes, and mystic tattoo crossing her forehead like a royal circlet, one might actually mistake for a human woman.Her elaborate robes fluttered behind her she rushed over and scooped the child up in her arms.

Muffled crying erupted in the faerie’s shoulder as the baby elf balled his small hands into tight fists, clutching at the silken fabrics on the faerie’s robes.

“Oh dear.” The faerie sighed as Link’s ear poked her in the neck. “It seems like I’m not the only thing that’s scared you.”

The faerie shifted the child’s weight over to a single arm and waved to one of the attendants nearby.

“Get his bed ready. And warm a glass of lon lon milk. It’ll be ages before he falls asleep tonight.” 

“Yes my lady.” A smaller faerie said before disappearing into a ball of light and darting off.

A lingering fog hung around her ankles, surrounding a trail of blue silk that fluttered behind her as the Great Faerie marched across the cold marble floor, winding her way through the temple halls. She eventually arrived at what looked like a wall of rough tree bark . She raised her palm flush against it, and at the slight glow of her fingertips the tree bark immediately peeled itself away, curling back like cinnamon stuck to reveal curtains upon curtains of ivy that all conformed around her as she passed, making way until finally she crossed the threshold and entered the nursery.

With a furious glare the Great Faerie dismissed two nervous looking guards, neither of which wasted any time bolting away.

In the center of the room, she gently set the child down in his bed, but when she tried to stand and walk away the child clung to her robes. And so the Great Faerie attempted to curl into the small bed better fit for a deku scrub. But she managed, albiet with her right leg hanging off over the end and her right arm’s resting on the bed’s frame. Young Link curled up against her chest and cocooned himself within the folds of her robes, still quivering from whatever had startled him earlier.

“This is why I told you not to leave the temple Link. It’s dangerous in the lost woods, and even more so beyond them.” The Great faerie sighed as she scooped the child back up and gently rocked him to sleep. “What in Hylia’s name did you see out there to scare you like this?”


	2. Buried Past

The wooden shortsword cut through the brush the best it could, leaving the remainding bramble to rake jagged lines across Link’s bare calves. He didn’t care, though he knew the Great Faerie would have a much different opinion once he got back from his little adventure.

But that would be later. Right now, Link hurried along, pushing forward without slowing down until the echo of fairy fountain music faded into the distance behind him.

***

Link pushed a low hanging tree branch out of his path and let his fingers linger on it, paying careful attention to the unfamiliar patterns of rough bark dragging across his skin. He’d entered a new part of the woods. With an absent sun, the grey-blue sky was dull and the streaks of light poking through the forest canopy didn’t offer much aid in navigating the dim terrain.

 _“Ugh what was that spell again?”_ Link thought for minute.

He tapped his wooden sword on his knee, going through a mental rolodex of everything he’d often hear from the Great Faerie. After filtering through what was mostly nagging to stop running in the halls, brush his teeth before bed, and other obnoxious reminders, the sigil he was looking for finally came to mind. Link sketched it out in the dirt with his foot, sheathed his sword and slapped both of his palms to the ground.

A bright, white-blue curtain of light rose up from the ground; it concaved into the center of the sigil until it formed a sphere of light that floated up into the air and settled into his hands. It was cool to the touch, like all of the Great Faerie’s magic, but what he didn’t expect were small patches of the surrounding forest to reflect back the same light forming a path that looked suspiciously like the same trail the Great Faerie created for him in the temple so he could find his way to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Curiosity flooded his mind, and Link ran down the trail, hoping that something other than a bathroom would be at it’s end.

***

DO NOT ENTER.

Neatly written in what was unmistakably the Great Faerie’s handwriting. The phrase repeated itself over and over on a wide ribbon that was criss crossed over the mouth of a cave. At first this was a bit off putting, but then Link remembered the time The Great Faerie put the exact same seal over the closet where she hid his birthday presents. So like any twelve year old would, without a second thought Link whipped out his wooden sword, slashed through the seal, and carried on his merry way.

Inside, he found neither a bathroom, nor birthday presents. In fact for quite some time there was nothing at all as he travled down a narrow tunnel, but eventually the cave opened up and his summoned light could only illuminate a small radius around him, and anything beyond was hidden in deep shadows that twinkled like a night sky with ore deposits glowing in the far distance. Link marched on.

***

He wasn’t sure when, but at some point it became difficult to breathe. And this became quite the issue when he met his first monster.

***

It wasn’t long before Link got a handle on solving all of the little puzzles he came across. Why so many puzzles, he wondered. All of the chests only had keys that unlocked doors that only held more puzzles. Only because it was too late to turn back, Link marched on.

***

Link was ready to go home. At some point, he gave up trying to fight the monsters and just took hits as he tried to solve the puzzles as fast as humanly possible, simply to get out of same room. Pain . . . was not something he was familiar with. The Great Faerie had always showered him in charms that acted as a bumper to any threat that might harm him, but perhaps he was too far from her for them to work now. He was covered in cuts and bruises from head to toe, and bleeding in several places. At least he still had his favorite green hat, though it was pretty torn up. He wondered if the Great Faerie would even fix it for him once she saw the state he was in when he’d return home. Then, for a scary moment Link wondered if he would be able to return home at all.Link held his small, summoned light close to his chest and marched on.

***

It was quite . . . Uncomfortably so. Link wasn’t sure if he’d had accidentally gone down a dead end, if there was a puzzle he’d yet to solve or if that was really it. A puff of smoke inside an empty chest.

The room around him seemed very “final”. There was a big key, that lead to a bigger door, that opened to an even bigger room which he was currently standing in. Candles lined the edge of the room, with no other entrances or exits in sight other than the way he had came. But Link was too tired to be disappointed, and it was getting harder to breath. Even just standing still, his chest was heaving up and down, trying to suck as much oxygen out of thin air as he could. Link sheathed his sword and started walking back the way he’d came, wondering how he would manage to get home when suddenly the door slammed shut, and an icy grip wrung itself around his wrist. Link turned around, and saw what looked like a perfect reflection of himself. The same boots, same sword, and the same tunic until his gaze finally came up to the dark void in it’s eyes. And it was then, as all of the candlelight in the room blew out one by one that Link realized he’d made a terrible mistake by coming here.

Link screamed, jerking his hand away as he broke into a sprint, but quickly realized there was no place for him to run. In the darkness, whatever it was that he’d seen had changed shape, and the footsteps of hulking beast echoed into the high ceiling. The narrow range of view his summoned light offered soon had him running into the wall, and with nowhere else to go Link turned around and watched as pair a bright red eyes in the crept closer in darkness. Link momentarily felt his legs go weak with fear before they gave out completely.With his back to the wall, he slid to the floor and brought his knees to his chest. When the massive claw of an abomination came into view, Link squeezed his eyes shut, refusing to see anymore as he waited for it to come down on him.

The sound of thunder in his ear crashed down over and over. Enough times for Link to realize that time had passed, and he was not dead.

He opened his eyes and saw his summoned light burn like a small, white sun above his head as the sigil for light he’d drawn earlier hovered in the air like a shield, quaking each time the abomination came down on it with an attack. And on the far side of the room, standing in the remains of an obliterated doorway was the Great Faerie, clutching her torso with one arm and leaning against her staff with the other. Her skin was paler than usual, and blood was streaming down from her hairline, but her despite it all her expresion was beyond furious.

 _“LINK.”_ The Great Faerie shouted as she stormed in. “Why are you here!? And what have you _done!?”_ She shouted _._

The Great Faerie aimed her staff at the creature and blasted a pillar of blue fire in its direction, lighting up the room as it crawled up the walls and re-ignighted the candles in a bright blue glow.

“How did you know I was here?” Link yelled over the blasting fire.

 _“How did I—!?_ Well I’ve felt like absolute shit all morning, and you were nowhere to be found at the temple, so I figured you were out getting your ass whopped somewhere.” The Great Faerie spat. “But I can’t believe you— _ARGH.”_

As the abomination struck down on the sigil shielding Link, the Great Faerie fell to her knees.

“GET OVER HERE!” she shouted as blood streamed out the corners of her mouth.

Link scrambled to his feet and ran around the perimeter of the room until he was behind the Great Faerie’s billowing robes.

“I can’t believe I’m going to have to do this all over again.” The Great Faerie groaned as she struggled to stand. “I take my eyes off you for a damn second . . . By Hyila your still a child this time.” Leaning on her staff, she held out one hand and pressed the palm of her hand against the stone wall behind them until a circle of light began to spread outward, and the blurry image of an empty field came into view within it. “Link . . . I know you never listen but . . . promise me you’ll be a good boy. I pray we’ll meet again.”

And with that, the Great Faerie gently ran her fingers through Links hair before pushing him backwards through the portal, and with the image of the abomination standing over the Great Faerie burned into his mind, the world went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHOOOOOOO my gOD this writing chapter was like taking a dry shit that didn't want to come out. Im a dialogue heavy writer so writing a chapter where link was mostly all by himself was incredibly difficult but i'm glad that things should be a lot smoother from here on out since now that the adventure has truly begun I can introduce more characters! Anyway thank you for reading!


	3. A Ranch, and a Red Head.

Link bolted awake with tears flooding his eyes.

“Uhhh . . . Gran? Grandma!? He’s awake!” A young girl with bright red hair yelled.

She scrambled out of the rocking chair, ran around the bed, and hurried out the door on the other side of the room. The sound of her thundering down the stairs, and then yelling from the lower floor echoed up into the stairwell.

_“Grandma! Grandpa! Come up stairs!”_

Link vigorously wiped the tears off his face with the blanket thrown over his body as the slow creaking of someone coming up the stairs grew louder.

“. . . Oh thank goodness. I was starting to think he’d never wake up again.” The grandma sighed. “What’s your name dear? Is your family nearby? Did you get lost?”

Link stared at the old woman in complete loss.

 _“What did you say?”_ Link said in Faerie, his voice sweet, strange, and melodic like a broken music box.

Both the little girl and grandma gasped.

 _“Sha’lon I told you! I told you that boy’s a Faerie!”_ the voice of a crotchety old man yelled as he came up the stairs. “Ain’t no way a Hylian could survive in the miasma that long without keel’n over! He’s a Faerie I tell you!”

“Ta’lon don’t be silly. It’s been hundreds of years since anyone’s seen a Faerie. They’ve gone extinct.” Grandma Sha’lon sighed. “It must be brain damage from the miasma. It happend to my brother once! One day he went out fishing and , lost his warding chalice in the river, and came back thinking he was a catfish. We shouldget him back to his family so they know he’s alright.”

“An’ how are we suposed to do that when he talks like a broken record?” Grandpa Ta’lon grumbled.

“OH! I have an idea!” the little girl said, bolting out of the room, then quickly returning withbook and a quill. After scribbling for a minute she held up a crude drawing of a square with a triangle on top, vaguely resembling a building.

“HOUSE.” She said loudly. “WHERE. DO. YOU. LIVE?”

Having lived his whole life in a temple, Link stared at the drawing with no recollection.

 _“Ugh.”_ The girl grumbled, tearing the page out of the book’s binding and drawing something else. Once she was done, she grabbed Link’s hand, and pressed his index finger to a small stick figure.

 _“YOU.”_ She said, pressing his hand to his own chest, then back to the small stick figure. _“MOM.”_ She continued, moving Link’s hand to a larger stick figure with two long curls of hair and a triangle dress. “WHERE IS YOUR MOM?”

Link stared at drawing. He couldn’t understand the loud girl, but her drawing reminded him of the Great Faerie. Like the ones he used to draw when he was much younger. Link’s eyes suddenly welled, and despite himself tears started pouring down his face again.

“Oh dear.” Grandma Sha’lon said. “Malon leave the poor boy alone, we can figure this all out in the morning. Come now.”

“. . . Okay.” Malon said, taken aback by Link’s reaction. Leave the drawing in his lap, she followed her grandparents on their way out, carefully shutting the door behind her and leaving Link alone with his thoughts in silence.

***

It didn’t take long for Link’s Hylian vocabulary to expand, and though limited, he was still quite pleased with what he’d recently learned. So far, _milk_ was his favorite word, because it was his favorite drink. Other words he enjoyed were: ‘hay’, ‘cow’ and ‘horse’. He hated cuccos though, and was glad to stick a name to their evil menace.

“Hey Link! Why don’t you get the rest of these cucco eggs for me so we can hurry up and go to the market!? I know you’ve been dyeing to come to town with me!” Malon yelled from across the barn, running a loop around one of the support beams as she tried to throw off the slew birds chasing her. 

“No!” Link yelled back.

 _‘No’_ was another one of this favorite words. Though it was difficult to communicate his thoughts, Link was no fool. It’d only been a few weeks since he started living with the little family, but knew what his chores were, and what Malon’s chores were, and the Great Faerie raised him far too clever to fall for Malon’s attempts at getting him to do the all of the work. Though deep down, he really wouldn't mind lending an extra hand. A predisposition for pettiness was something he also learned from the Great Faerie, and Malon’s own teasing was the only thing holding Link back from benevolence. After all, he’d been taken in, taken care of, and was asked for noting in return but a little help around the ranch. Gratitude and fairness were also things he’d been raised with, but until further notice he decided he’d only show it to Grandma Sha’lon. And sometimes Grandpa Ta’lon, despite his grouchy tendencies.

“House!” Link yelled over his shoulder as he picked up his pail of Lon Lon milk, marched out of the barn, and headed back to the main residence.

Struggling not to spill anything, Link pushed the heavy wooden door open with his back, then carefully waddled across the main room and into the kitchen. Early morning light filtered through drying herbs that hung from the ceiling like wisteria on a trellis, and left the kitchen in random patches of light and shadow as if they were under a forest canopy.

“Gran!” Link called as he set the pail on the countertop.

“Oh, thank you dear.” Grandma Sha’lon said, dusting flour off of her hands.“Now I can finally get these hot cakes started.”

The little old lady measured out the amount of milk she needed, and began stirring it in with the rest of the ingredients in the bowl. Link took his seat at the table and watched the grandma pour circles of batter onto a hot skillet over the fireplace.

Her kneeling silhouette reminded him of the Great Faerie.

Even though there was a cook in the temple who provided him with most of his meals, at midday the Great Faerie would make a point to prepare something herself. She would always findi him somewhere in the temple playing, and come carrying a plate in one hand and a cup of tea in the other.

_“Link! Come sit down with me for a minute.”_

Link’s heart sank at the memory of her voice, and his mind spiraled down into forlorn thoughts. Completely absorbed in his own gloom, Link didn’t notice Malon trail in with the basket of eggs, and then without him realizing, breakfest was already laid out before him on the table.

“Hey.” Malon said, poking Link in the arm with the back of her fork. “It’s gonna get cold. If you don’t want it lemme’ have it.”

Without looking up, Link pushed his plate of eggs over to Malon, but kept his hotcakes which he attempted to nibble on despite his deflated appetite. 

“Oh dear. . . sweetheart are you not hungry?” Grandma Sha’lon asked from across the table.

“Gran, even when he’s not moping around he never eats the eggs. He’s fine.” Malon said with her mouth half full.

“I’d just hate for him to get worn out on an empty stomach once you two head off to town. It’ll be his first time leaving the ranch.”

“Don’t worry, he’ll be alright.” Malon said, grabbing the second hotcake Link had left untouched on his plate before standing up to bring her empty plates to the sink. “I’ll go get the wagon.” Malon said before shoving the hotcake in her mouth and hurring off.

“Well then . . .I suppose I’ll get the warding chalice.” Grandma Sha’lon said as she too got up and took the rest of the plates off the table, waving for Link to follow.

After walking into the main room she unlocked the doors to a large china cabinet, and sitting in the center was the warding chalice. It looked something like a cross between a conch-shell and an expensive vass, and vibrent blue water was suspend mid-air in it’s center, making a perfect sphere. Grandma Sha’lon carefully picked it up by it’s handle, and carefully lowered it down into Link’s hands.

“Don’t worry, once you get back I’ll make you some more hotcakes.” Grandma Sha’lon said.

The old lady ran her hand over the top of Link’s hair as she went past, and the simple gesture brought Link right back to his last moments with the Great Faerie. Link squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his free hand over his eyes, as if trying to push back the tears he already felt stinging his eyes. Malon was waiting outside for him and the last thing he needed right now was for her to catch him crying. _Again._

Outside, the little girl was kicking her legs back and fourth, passing time at the front seat of a small carriage when Link finally came out.

“Come on!” She called, slapping the seat next to her.

“No.” Link mumbled, opting to crawl into the rear bow of the wagon and sit along with the cargo of from the ranch.

 _“Crybaby.”_ Malon huffed as she took the reins. “Come on Epona, let’s go.”

The road to town was long, but simple. It was a straight shoot downhill without a single twist or turn, and had a clear view the town steadily growing closer into view, while the ranch behind them continued to shrink out of sight.

***

Originally, Link had chosen to stay within the wagon’s bow simply to avoid any more of Malon’s pestering, but now, as they entered town, he became even more pleased with his decision. The town hummed with foot-traffic and the bustle of early morning business. With some time, he’d been able to adjust to Malon and her grandparents, but Link was no where near ready to face so many new strangers at once. From the safety of the wagon, he carefully peaked out, watching the people go by while Malon steered the wagon, ambling their way down the narrow cobblestone streets until finally they reached the front of a general store

“You can leave that for now.” Malon said, pointing at the warding chalice. “The town crystal will keep the miasma away so we don’t need it. Plus I need your help unloading the wagon.”

Reluctant to leave the wagon at all, Link begrudgingly crawled out and started helping Malon carry the goods into the store front.

 _“Lon Lon Ranch shipment!”_ Malon yelled as she entered the storefront. 

A cheerfully entry bell rung and called the owner out from the back.

“Oh!! Your early today!” The Shopkeep said, taking the basket of eggs from Malon and placing them in the wooden display case, then doing the same with Link as he handed over the jars of Lon Lon Milk.

And so on they went, like a family bringing in groceries they hurried back and forth from the wagon until the supply was exhausted and the previously barren storefront was filled with lush goods.

“Ah, thank ya’ for yer’ help child.” The Shopkeep sighed. “. . . Or should I say children? Have ya’ got a new friend Malon?”

“. . .Something like it.” Malon said as she eyed the candies on the shelf. “Can I have my reward now?” she asked, tilting her head with an innocent look.

“And I assume that’ll be another honey candy?” the Shopkeep said, amused as Malon already grabbed a few, made quick work of the wrappers and had the sweets in her mouth. “And what about you little one? Would you like some candy?”

The Shopkeep turned to face Link and kneeled over to meet him at eye-level. 

“Or would you prefer something else?”

Forgetting his shyness, Link immediately pointed to a map pinned on wall, which he’d been eyeing ever since he set foot in the small shop.

“Oh goodness. I don’t think I can give that away.”

“Give what away?” Malon said, coming over with about three more pieces of candy in her mouth.

The shopkeep squinted at her with slight annoyance, but turned his attention back to map.

“Ah, well really it’s just an old map I haggled from a merchent in castle town. I always thought that I could sell it to some travler passing by the village at a premium one day but . . . No travlers ever come through our little village, and the few that do always know where their going. To be honest it’s been sitting here collecting dust for years now, but my wife would kill me if I just let it go . . . Unless you’d be willing to do me a favor in exchange for it.”

“Yes!” Link said eagerly.

“Well, on the outskirts of town there’s a few apple trees mixed in with the pine at the edge of the forest . . . If you could bring some back for me, about ten to be exact, the map is all yours. My wife is crazy about this apple pie, but picking them by myself while holding a warding chalice is really time consuming, but since there’s two of you, it should be done in no time.”

“Ehhh . . That sounds like a lot of work.” Malon whined. “I dunno if I wanna—.”

“WE DO IT!” Link cut in.

This was _excellent._ Link was very good at climbing trees, and would have no problem snatching apples off the branches. And if he was lucky, he might even get to throw a few at Malon and pass it off as a slip and some gravity. This was a win-win-win situation, with all three wins being his. He’d get the map. He’d get to play in some tress, and get to mess with Malon.

“Let’s go!” Link said promptly.

He turned on his heels, grabbed Malon by the hand and marched out.

“Wait! I need to get the warding chalice out of the wagon!” Malon huffed. “The town’s crystal won’t work past the front gate.” Malon grumbled, jerking her hand away before heading back to the wagon.

Link frowned, wondering why she insisted on bringing that thing everywhere. She did this when they collected firewood in the forest outside the ranch, and when they were rounding up horses that wandered off to the edges of the pasture, and now even for something as simple as apple picking.

“Alright, let’s go.” Malon said, returning with the chalice. “Follow me."

Link trailed after her as the two wound their way through narrow dirt paths and alleyways in-between the shops and houses until finally they past a sleeping guardsman by the front gate, and just like that they were off.

“Okay . . . Now we just have to find a—.”

“There!” Link cut in, pointing at a tree in the near distance.

Link was naturally gifted with a sharp eye, especially when it came to finding snacks the Great Faerie hid around the temple; and although an apple wasn’t nothing compared to his favorite chickaloo tree nut crisps, it was edible all the same and that was enough. He immediately took off towards it.

“Hey, wait!” Malon yelled as she ran after him.

After a several yard sprint, Malon used the last bit of her strength to catch up to Link and yank him back by the arm.

 _“You can’t—just run—outside the barrier—like that!”_ Malon wheezed as she dropped the chalice onto the ground and caught her breath.

“Barrier?” Link repeated. “What barrier?”

Malon straightened up and smacked Link upside the back of his head before pointing to a faint line of light running across a the ground in a large circle.

 _“The one that keeps out the miasma!”_ Malon snapped.

Small clouds of dust were kicked up around the scope of the light, and was circling around them as if a phantom wind were carrying it forward. Beyond that line, even the air looked slightly murky, with particles of dust swirling around what Link now realized to be something of a bubble-like forcefield surrounding them.

“Anyways it’s not like the apples are going anywhere, there’s no need to run.” Malon huffed as she grabbed the chalice marched forward.

Link rolled his eyes. For the first time he noticed the subtle effects of warding chalice, but still didn’t understand why it was so important, or what the miasma exactly was. He’d grown up in the temple just fine without ever having laid eyes on a chalice, and even felt fine in the few moments he did sneak out past the ranch borders to find solace in the quite of the woods. He chalked it up to a backwater towns folk tradition, and deiced to play along just to keep Malon from smacking him again. And so, by treading on the very edge of the barrier, Link gently hurried Malon forward until they finally reached a cluster of apple trees hanging around the edge of the thicket that led into the woods.

“I’m not climbin’ no trees.” Malon said promptly as they arrived. She set down the chalice and picked up her apron by it’s bottom two corners, making an inverted parachute to catch apples in. “Alright then. Git.”

Link squinted, not entirely pleased by her tone, but decided not to push it and hurried along.

He peeled off his boots and scurried up the tree trunk with ease. Link scaled up the branches, higher and higher as he swung his limbs and used the momentum to propel himself forward with relatively little effort. If anything, twisting the apple off the branches was the hardest part of the arrangement. Their stems were strong and stubborn, and weren’t coming off without a fight. This was a healthy tree. But beyond the obvious signs, Link could simply feel the flourishing life force radiating from the tree’s being, save a few dead branches here and there, which were common among older trees such as this one and were a necessary part of growth. Link managed to maneuver around them, least they snap under his weight, but as the sun began to set it became more difficult to tell them apart. Link deiced to move faster.

“OW!” Malon yelled, rubbing her forehead after an apple struck her smack in the forehead. “Watch where your throwing those!”

“The apples!” Link yelled back.

By letting go of her apron to rub her forehead, Malon accidentally allowed all of the apples they’d collected so far to fall and roll down hill and off into the gloomy dusk that was quickly coming across the land. Link watched them disappear and felt his heart sink back down into a terrible place. Without the apples he couldn’t get the map, and without the map he’d never be able to find his way back home to the Lost Woods, and if he couldn’t find his way home, he’d never find the Great Faerie and save her from that monster. She’d be stuck down there in that crypt forever. And he’d be stuck here, homesick, _forever._

 _“WHY YOU DO THAT!?”_ Link screamed, hot tears rolling down his face as he grabbed what few apples were left and hurled them as hard as he could at Malon.

“What is _WRONG with you!?”_ Malon screamed back. “That’s it! Forget you stupid map! _I’m_ holding the chalice, so _I’m_ in charge. And I’m going _home!!”_

 _“NO!”_ Link screamed.

“I dont care! I’m leaving now! And if you don’t come too _then you can go choke on the miasma!_ ” Malon yelled, her voice tired and shrill from screaming.

And with that Malon grabbed the warding chalice and marched off back towards town without looking back.

Link watched her go from his perch in the trees, and suffered little more than a gross body shiver once he was outside the warding chalice’s grace.

 _“Forget Malon.”_ Link thought.

At a second thought, he decided he could get the map on his own . . . but first he’d need to find some more apples, and to do that, he’d have to go deeper into the woods.

***

Most children would find the very thought of heading into the woods alone past dusk frightening, but not Link. After all, he grew up in a place just like this; but despite being perfectly comfortable, it was getting harder and harder to see in the waning light. Link managed to skate by for a while, relying on instinct and intuition to maneuver his way around, but when the stars overhead appeared more clearly than his own hand in front of his face, Link accepted that something had to be done. He’d been avoiding it up until now as using magic tended to ware him out, but now he had no choice.

Link felt the ground for a small tree branch and snatched one up the second his hand passed over it. Then, after digging his heel into the dirt to make it soft, he attempted to draw the sigil for light. After a few failed attempts, unable to check his work in the dark, Link managed to conjure up a small sphere of light, which like last time was only able to illuminate a small circle of light around him, about an arms length outward in any direction. Beyond that, it was complete darkness. But that didn’t matter. Link was a fast climber, and no matter how many trees it took, now that he was able to see, he was sure he’d get the job done . . . _eventually_ anyways. 

And he would have, if it weren’t for the flash of light in the near distance that piqued his interested. Curiosity beckoned his heart, and without thinking Link dropped down from the lowest branch he could reach and hurried off after it, even deeper into the woods.

The light he chased appeared much smaller than his own, or perhaps that was just the distance. He clasped his own light in-between his hands to muffle it, least it outshine his target. As he grew closer, he soon realized it was not one, but two smaller lights close together, and then slowly, the shadow of a slender figure was dimly outlined in the dark before it came into clear view within Link’s circle of light, revealing itself to be a deer.

Link stared at the creature in quite fascination, as it did similarly to him. Link quickly realized the light he had seen was simply a reflection of his own within the deer’s eyes, and although he was slightly disappointed, secretly hoping it would be a fairy to lead him back home, his new friend was not a bad discovery either. The deer took well to Link, unafraid, and allowed the small elf closer to receive scratches behind its ear and pets on the head. 

_“Are you hungry?”_ Link said, speaking in Faerie for the first time since he’d first arrived here.

The deer made a small yelping noise in response, which gave Link the feeling one gets when a word is on the tip of your tongue, but you simply cannot remember exactly what it was. The Great Faerie was much better at speaking to animals, while the most he could gather was little beyond a yes or no. Link sorely wished he’d paid more attention during his lessons back when he had the chance, but none the less he was able to vaguely understood the deer’s reply as a negative, lack there of, or simply . . . _no._

 _“Oh. . .”_ Link said, a touch disappointed again, this time because he wouldn’t get a chance to feed the deer. “ _Well that’s fine, we can have some fun another way. We could play a game. What would you like to play?”_

The deer looked intently at Link for a moment, as if in deep thought about it’s favorites pass times were before suddenly jerking his head away and turning in the opposite direction.

 _“Whats wrong?”_ Link asked, confused as he looked around.

There was nothing to be seen, but the faint sound of thudding quickly grew louder before it turned to a thundering stampede of other deer as an entire herd rushed past them. The deer in front of him began to anxiously stomp its hooves, turning back to meet Link’s gaze with an intense stare, as if it were desperately trying to communicate something before bolting off.

 _“What is it? What’s going on?”_ Link said, cupping the deer’s muzzle.

But then before Link could realized what was happening, he watched, almost in slow motion as the shaft of a black feathered arrow shot through the deer’s left eye and burst out of it’s right, all in a single instant. Blood splattered across Link’s face as the deer slipped out of his hands and fell to the ground with a hard, lifeless thud.

Link felt his chest go cold. His conjured light went out, along with his shattered concentration. He started running, without real reason or direction. Perhaps another habit he acquired from the Great Faerie, Link shoved the terror he’d just witnessed to the back of his mind as if it hadn’t happend and focused on taking one step after another.

By some stroke of luck, eventually Link managed to backtrack his way out of the woods and into the open. From where he stood, he was at the top of a hill and could see the town, and farther back was the ranch. Link’s heart pulled at the thought of returning to a safe, warm bed, but quickly remembered his falling out with Malon, and also the fact that he’d forgotten all of his apples. Unwilling to go back into the woods, without much else of a choice Link started back for the town empty handed and in deep thought.

How was he supposed to get the map now? Perhaps he could try again tomorrow, during daylight? Forget tomorrow, what would he do tonight? How would he get back to the ranch without Malon and the wagon? Would he just walk the whole way? And even if, what would he do after what happend with Malon? Gran would probably let him back in to stay with them. Probably. But for how long? And how long would it be before he could go back home and find the Great Faerie?

And then a scary thought . . . How long did he even have, if he ever wanted to see the Great Faerie again? He’d been here for a few weeks now, and if she was still down there, with that monster.

The image of an arrow shooting though the deers eyes ripped though Link’s mind, as the image of a sword ripping through the Great Faerie’s chest quickly followed. 

Link shoved the image out of his mind and fought back tears, refusing to cry for a third time today. So it was to his great surprise when he herd the sound of muffled sobbing as he approached the town gate, not from himself, but from a small hunched up figure sitting next to a warding chalice, and a small pile of bruised apples.

_“Malon?”_ Link called.

The little girl’s face immediately shot up.

 _“Link!?”_ Malon said, quickly jumping to her feet and pushing the hair out of her face, as if to get a better look. Her expression quickly turned from disbelief, to relief, and then plummeted down into anger. “I thought you were _dead!_ Were you just playing in the woods this whole time!?”

Malon grabbed an apple from her pile and threw it like a baseball at Link, striking him in the side of the head with a hard _THUNK._

“OW!” Link yelled.

The absolute last thing Link wanted right now was another argument. Too tired to try and reason with her, Link simply grabbed the apple he’d just been hit with and hurled back at her; and without further ado, a rather nasty squabble broke out between them. Or about as nasty as a fight between two twelve year olds could get anyway. Though, in all due respect, was actually quite brutal, no matter how juvenile the tactics, which consisted of poorly aimed punches and scratching, but mostly hair pulling. But even at this level, Link quickly realized that Malon was a much better fighter than he was, and a fair amount stronger. But he was faster, and more nimble, and was able to writhe out of her grip . . . _most_ of the time.

The two wrestled around for a bit, stumbling a good distance away from the warding chalice until Link, to his own surprise was able to completely shove Malon off his body. She stumbled back and collapsed into a languid form, sprawled across the ground. Link braced himself, waiting for her to jump back up and put him back into a headlock . . . but she did not.

Instead, Link was meet with a sudden stillness that unnerved him more and more the longer it drew on. He hadn’t pushed her that hard, and Link doubted he was even strong enough to do any serious damage. Not to mention that Malon was _far_ to stubborn and hotheaded to give up so easily, but once her limp body began to be bare an eerie resemblance the lifeless carcass of the deer in the woods, Link realized something was terribly wrong.

 _“Malon? Malon!?”_ Link yelled as he ran toward her.

Link knelt to the ground and lifted the girl off the ground and into his arms, turning her body over to see her face. Under her skin, an unnatural, purplish hue was creeping up her throat and spread across her face, while sickly green viens spread like the thin lines of lighting all over her body. She was breathing, although it was weak and shallow, as if something were blocking the airways in her body. As if she were choking. And it was then, Link suddenly realized.

_“. . .Well then you can go choke on the miasma!”_

He’d completely forgotten. Link dragged Malon back to the warding chalice as quick as he could, and sure enough Malon was able to slowly catch her breath, although the strange veins and color in her face refused to fade.

“Malon? Malon?” Link said, shaking her body until eventually her eyes fluttered back open.

“ . . . I-I’m sorry.” Link said in a weak voice.

“Don’t be.”Malon sighed. She saw Link kneeling over her, and the moon full in the sky behind him. She stared at him for a moment before looking away. “Because this is what I . . . What I thought I did to you.”

Link helped her sit up, and then helped her stand. He also tried to help her walk, but she insisted on hobbling forward on her own, and retrieving the bruised apples back into her apron. She would’ve attempted to carry the warding chalice as well, but she didn’t have the strength to fight back when Link snatched it away from her.

The two made their way back through town, where they found Epona asleep and still tied wagon by the general store.

“Wait, did you forget?” Malon said as she stopped Link from following her into the wagon and pointed to the general store.

Link stared at her with a blank look.

“Don’t worry, he should still be awake.” She huffed. “Just keep knocking until he opens the door, he’s a light sleeper.”

She handed him the bruised up apples, exchanging them for the warding chalice.

“I’m tired so I’m just gonna wait over here.” Malon yawned as she crawled into the wagon’s bow.

Link nodded and did as told, banging on the general store’s door until eventually the shopkeep jerked the door open.

 _“Do you know what time it_ — Oh!” Shopkeep said. “Son . . . it’s the middle of the night . . . what happend to you? You look awful, and where’s Malon?”

“Wagon . . . She tired.” Link said, meekly offering the armfuls of bruised apples.

“Well . . . I guess this is my own fault for sending a couple of kids outside of town. It’s a blessing neither of you died in the miasma.” The Shopkeep sighed as he disappeared inside before returning with the map. “Here, you can have it for all your troubles. E for effort.” He said, handing the rolled up map over. “And uh . . . You can keep the apples.”

Link hurried back to the wagon, excited to show Malon the map only to find her fast asleep in the wagon’s bow, curled around the warding chalice as if it were keeping her warm.

“Let’s go home.” Link said, patting Epona on the neck until she woke up, and with that Link mostly watched as the horse steered itself and the wagon home, already familiar with the way.

***

The ride back was quite and uneventful, but it was exactly what the two children needed. When they arrived, Link removed Epona from her reins, intending for her to run back to the pasture, but the horse was so tired she simply shuffled off to the side of the homestead, taking shelter under the over hanging roof before returning back to sleep. And speaking of sleepy companions, Link struggled with Malon who seemed intent on spending the night in the wagon. He wound up with her on his back, where he half carried, half dragged her to the front door. But thankfully, it only took a single knock before the door flew open and they were taken inside.

***

Malon fell severally ill for the next three weeks, and Link never questioned the danger of miasma again. But surprisingly, in that time of Malon’s bedrest the two grew exceptionally close. You would think that with Link having to attend to Malon’s every need, he would become spiteful, or that Malon would take advantage of the situation to mess with him. And had their misadventure never taken place, it most certainly would have happend that way, but as we know that was not so.

While they stayed indoors together, Link spoke (the best he could) about his home in the temple, the Lost Woods, and the Great Faerie. And Malon taught Link a more complex vocabulary, along with naming the locations on the map.

The Zora domain to the east, Goron City to the side of death mountain to the west, the Rito plains to the great north, and the Gerudo Vally in the far south, and in the center of it all was of course, Hyrule field surrounding the famed Hyrule Castle. Oddly enough though, The Lost woods was not on the map, or rather it was not labeled. Link could clearly see a large cluster of forest resembling a similar shape on the maps he’d seen back home in the temple, so he took it upon himself . . . _to have Malon write it in for him_ , as he still could not read or write in Hylian. Regardless, while pouring over the map, two children would talk and speculate about how one day they’d set out on a grand adventure to find Link’s home, and perhaps things might have played out this way, if it weren’t for the knock that came at their door one day that would change everything.

“This is the Hyrule Frontier Guard.” A solider said, standing in the threshold wareing full armor. “We’ve been sent word that young witch immune to miasma lives here.”

“I’ve absolutely no idea what your talking about.” Grandma Sha’lon said abruptly, pushing both of the children behind her.

“Ma’m we’re gonna have to take a look around.”

The solider stepped inside, followed by two more, with the first being another solider and second being a man who was busy examining the contents of a scroll he was reading. At first he looked quite a bit out of place with the soldiers due to his long robes and more subdued mannerisms, but upon closer examination one would notice that the ends of his robes were quite tattered, as were the sleeves and around the colar due to being well worn and lived in. His personal effects also had a rather militaristic look about them, encased in an olive green canvas which was also fraying at the seems, quite similar to the other soldiers. A tome was half holstered to his waist, half hanging off his shoulder like a satchel, ready to be used at any moment, as was large staff on his back, subtly glowing like a heartbeat, ready to be equipped at any moment. And it was after all these examinations, that Link realized this man was a solider as well.

“How many members are in this household?” The mage said, his voice quite but commanding.

“Four. Two grandparents, and two children.” Grandpa Talon said firmly.

“. . . Strange.” The mage said as he put away the scroll. “The papers here only register one child . . . Come forward. Now.”

Malon marched up to the mage, quite irritable despite her condition barely passing for recovery. She defensively stood in between the solider and Link, knowing how the boy felt about strangers.

“What do you want?” Malon blurted, unintimidated.

The mage regarded her for a moment, kneeling down to meet her at eye level were he then took a much closer look. His expresion became cold and analytical as his eyes darted around, searching Malon’s face. In mid-air, he drew out the sigil for light with his forefinger, and shone a small beam of light into Malon’s eye, quickly dousing it before she could react. Not a moment later he grabbed her hand, turning it over to look at the veins under her wrist, and then pulled at the skin on her cheek.

“It seems like I need nothing to do with you. You have a waning case of miasma poisoning . . . Which means your not the one I’m looking for.” The mage said as he set his eyes on Link. “Sir!” The mage called, turning his head back to the doorway. “Could youcome take a look?”

In the doorway, a rather grisly old man stepped through. He didn’t appear to be a solider, lacking any kind of military branding or armor, and was also much older, and much more worn down. And unlike the mage, or other two soldiers, rather than a tome or a sword, the only thing he had on his persons was a bow and a quiver holstered to his back, which held a bundle of black feathered arrows.

_A hunter._

“Is this the witch you saw in the woods that night?”

“That’s the one. The blonde.” Said the hunter.

Link stared at the hunter, his eyes wandering to the quiver of bows before everything suddenly registered. The image of an arrow shooting through the deer’s eyes flashed through Link’s mind once again, but this time instead of a chilling fear, he was filled with rage. Unfortunately, there was little he could do at his size and strength, and after suffering a few scratches the hunter kicked Link squarely in the chest, sending him flying backwards.

“That’s enough!” Grandma Sha’lon yelled. “I wont stand here and allow you to harras my children any more! Leave!”

“That’s not an option, unless you’d like for me to arrest all of you here and now for treason of state by insubordination of a government official. . . but I doubt that’ll be necessary as it seems as though the little one has wrapped things up for us.” Said the Mage, turning his attention back to Link. “You recognize him, don’t you? What else would cause such a reaction?”

“That’s hardly any proof.” Grandpa Ta’lon spat.

“Then what more proof do you need? Perhaps a few minutes out in the miasma would be enough for you? Best case senario, the child leaves alive with us. Worst case, they stay with you. Dead.” The mage said coldly.

A long, uncomfortable silince filled the air.

“Take him. And set course for Hyrule Castle.”Said the mage.

The one of the two guards lifted Link up over his shoulder and hauled him away, kicking and screaming before forcing him into a cage in the bow of a wagon.

“You can’t do this!” Malon screamed as she ran out the door after them.

“I’m sorry little miss, but immunity to miasma? Such an ability is too vital to be left untapped. Within this child could be the key to saving all of Hyrule.”

“But . . .But he’s part of our family! You can’t just _take_ him!” Malon cried, too weak to chase after them any further.

“I’m sorry little girl.” The magical said as he hopped onto his horse. “Perhaps one day, the two of you will meet again.”

And just like that, they were gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW that took FOREVER to write. although this chapter is a lot longer than the last two, I'm still struggling with striking a balance between "getting it done" and just, trying not to upload some garbage writing just to say I did it. A lot of times during this chapter I considered uploading the separate scenes, but decided against it so readers could have a more "complete" story and chapter to sit with until the next upload. (so sorry if the end here is a bit rushed) My goal is to upload more frequently and consistently, about one chapter per week.  
> And now that we'll be able to meet even MORE characters, hopefully that'll become easier to do since i'll have more material to work with. OR. it could mean the chapters will just get longer and uploads will take even longer lololo. 
> 
> Antics aside, thank you for reading! Comments, and critique is very welcome. And Happy Holidays! (since realistically speaking, this is probably going to be my last upload until january.)


	4. The Court Magican

Tiny blossoms of color dotted wide, grassy fields that spread out forever like a green ocean.

Link tried to enjoy the view as he would have on any other occasion; but every time the wagon’s wheels creaked, or the voices of the soldiers on the other side carried in through the window, a heavy sense of doom struck down any kind of cheer in his heart. He didn’t know where he was going, or why. He didn’t know if he was to be killed the moment he got there . . . or if worse was to be done him; and this sent Link into an endless loop of fear and terror as his mind conjured up every worst case scenario he could imagen. Beyond that, his legs were prickling with cramps and ached to be stretched. But the soldiers hadn’t allowed him a single step outside wagon’s rear compartment since the day they’d left Lon Lon Ranch.

All meals were quickly shoved in through a narrow slot, and for the most part Link shoved them right back out as the only meal option seemed to be a stew that carried the wretched stench of animal flesh. Fortunately, the soldiers eventually caught onto the frequents returns, and not wanting their captive to die of starvation before they reached their destination they started tossing in apples or mushrooms, or whatever else they could find growing along the roads. As for business after eating, a clay urn sat in the corner (mostly unused due to his food situation) that was emptied out by a solider every few days.And thus, those brief flashes of the campsite when the wagon door would be opened, and his view of the field's from his window were all Link saw for nearly a month until one day, a tarp was placed over his windows and the wagon suddenly creaked to a firm halt.

Link listened carefully, at first hearing nothing more than the ambient sounds of the fields and the soldiers talking amongst themsleves, but the sound of conversation steadily grew louder, with more voices joining until it thundered in a cacophony of indiscernible speech; and unfortunately the awful sound seemed to last forever as the wagon pulled forward at a snails pace. Every now and then, a voice would ring a bit clearer over the others, and Link would _almost_ catch bits and pieces of what someone was saying, but none of it made any sense as the voices sounded nothing like how Malon and her family spoke. 

After what felt like a lifetime later, the outside eventually returned to a silence that was only disturbed by the familiar, hushed murmuring of the same three soldiers who had apprehended him. Their conversation went on for quite some time until suddenly, the back door of the wagon opened and dim candlelight stung Link’s eyes.

“Come now.” A solider called.

After blinking for a moment until his vision came back, Link shuffled forward to the edge of the wagon. Swinging his boney legs over the edge, he stood for just a moment before immediately collapsing on the ground. 

“Well that’s what you get for refusing to eat properly.” The Mage sighed as he scooped Link up and tossed him over his shoulder. “I’ll take it from here, you are both dismissed.” He said to the accompanying soldiers.

Too weak to do anything else, Link burned the image of the dungeons into his mind, desperately memorizing every turn, every hall, and every stairwell for when he would make his escape. This worked for some time, but after the mage carried him past a heavy door and up a rather long stairwell unlike the others, Link was meet with a sight so beautiful it nearly washed away all memory of the dungeons he’d seen just moments ago.

The Mage quietly walked through the opulence of Hyrule castle undisturbed, and seemingly unimpressed as his pace never slowed down for even a moment, much to Link’s dismay. The little elf looked around awestruck, trying (and failing) to take in the grand spectacle all around him, but as the Mage began to climb yet another tall, winding staircase, from his new vantage point Link realized that everything he was seeing was merely antechamber, a room that housed the open arched entrances to many other halls. His mind went spinning at the thought of what a proper throne room must look like if something as simple as a hall of halls was already so decorated. But after feeling a headache come on (moreso due to malnutrition rather than overthinking things), Link decided to just stare at the floor for the rest of the journey. And so they continued on like that, eventually hitting an indoor balcony at the next floor where a voice stopped them.

“Halt. This section of the castle of the castle is restricted to the court Magician.” Said the guard, pushing the mage back with his hand.

“Excuse me? Do you know who I am?” The mage snapped.

“A fine question indeed. State your name and status.” Said the guard.

For a moment, the Mage simply glared at the guards before his expression suddenly changed to something more amused.

“Oh, pardon me. I almost forgot.” The mage said.

Placing his palm on his forehead, he slid his hand down as if he were wiping something off his face, but as his hand came down to his chin, his features suddenly morphed from the friendly yet plain image of the mage, to something entirely else. His sleepy brown eyes changed into a violent, almost glowing shade of blue, while his jaw became less square and taperd down into a more delicate heart shaped face. He then slipped his fingers under his bangs and ran his hand back, causing his hair to grow until it reached waist length as he shook out the ends, all the while changing color from a deep chestnut brown to an ashy lilac that shone like threads of silver in the moonlight. 

“I am Vaati, court magician of Hyrule.” He said with an amused glare. “Now if you don’t mind.”

Vaati pushed past the guards, not waiting for an answer as they stood dumbfounded.

Towards the end of the balcony, Vaati pulled a ring of keys from his hip with his free hand and unlocked a door, leading to a room which appeared to be equal parts laboratory and private study, creating the appearance of something that seemed very suitable for someone carrying the tittle of court magician.

Almost anywhere there was space, old tomes were stacked up on each-other in small towers, many of which were topped off with abandoned teacups or a bundle of scrolls. At the far end of the room was a large hearth burning a low, hardly-there heat where it simmered the mysterious contents of a large cauldron.

On the opposite side of the room (which appeared to have been hastily cleared out as there was a halo of miscellaneous sitting around it on the floor), was a cage spacious enough for a large zoo animal, and apparently furnished for one too, complete with water bowl and sleeping cot.

Vaati pulled out his ring of keys again, and unlocked the cage, carefully setting Link inside as if he were brining home a new pet.

“There you go. Now I’ll be quite busy since we just got back, so you’ll have to wait a while before I can bring you something to eat. But until then . . .”

Vaati rummaged around inside his coat until he pulled out a red vial, that upon a flick of the wrist exposed a thin needle. Before Link could even react, Vaati grabbed the boy’s wrist and swiftly injected an elixir into his veins with surgical precision. Link braced himself for pain, but to his surprise Vaati was already withdrawing the needle and tossing the empty vial into a bin.

“That should be enough to keep your vital functions running through the night. I’ll be back by tomorrow afternoon if your lucky.” Vaati said pleasantly as he closed the cage and firmly locked its door. “And though I doubt you even have the strength for it . . . Don’t even think about escaping. Believe me when I say your much safer in here that you would be out there.”

“And how am I safe when I’m stuck with _you?”_ Link spat.

Vaati glared at Link for a moment before his menacing grin re-appeared on his face.

“Your safer with me because unlike everyone else in this wretched kingdom, _I_ am the only one actually planning on keeping you alive.” Vaati smiled, gently tapping Link on the nose as if he were playing with a baby. _“So don’t make me change my mind.”_ He whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW GUESS WHO TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THIS FIC UNTIL I RAN OUT OF THINGS TO DO IN SELF QUARANTINE!! it's me!!! 
> 
> I actually wanted to pick this back up a lot earlier in April but everything was stressful because of the pandemic and I still have a crap ton of school assignments to turn in and the semester is over in like two weeks but after that hopefully I should get back on regular updates since i'm finally getting used life again with everything that's going on right now. 
> 
> Also sorry if the chapter is a little rough, i'm kind of just forcing myself to get things out. I mean I want to write the fic but lately i just feel really unsure about my writing (and everything else right now lmaoo) so regardless of all that, I hope you could enjoy!


	5. Residencey

Like clockwork, at the start of each day soft, metallic clicks woud ring into the empty study as Vaati undid a lengthy number of locks. Without greeting or good-morning, he would march in carrying an assortment of fruits, nuts and cheese for Link to eat (which in all honesty were quite delicious) along with several vials of mysterious potions that were labeled with different vitamins and nutrients. 

  
During the mornings, Vaati mostly ignored Link as he went about his research in deep thought and concentration. Even when rummaging around his office for an extra quill or a particular tome, he wouldn’t offer so much as a glance in Links direction. The only time they ever really spoke was when Link requested a bathroom break, or bath, both of which were taken in the washroom attached to the study. Around noon, Vaati would always step out of the office and disappear until late into the evening where he would silently return with Link’s dinner and leave without a word. 

And that was all there was for the first few weeks, as if Link were staying at the most lonely and unpleasant hotel, that just happend to have great food  
But perhaps Vaati was doing something right, because sooner than he expected Link started to regain his strength and went from spending ten hours a day asleep, to waking at dawn when the sunrise flooded the office with honeyed light. 

Unfortunately, to be awake, was also to be bored seeing as he was still trapped inside a cage. So without much else of a choice Link would pace around and idle about with the with the passtimes Vaati had left him at some point when he was sleeping. There was a ring toss, a few puzzles, and a large rope attached to the roof of the cage. When he amused himself with these things Vaati would occasionally glance over for a moment with an interested look and take a few notes on a clipboard he kept nearby before returning to his work. At the moment, Link never took much notice of it, but he would later realize that these “pass times” were merely a round-about way for Vaati to conduct a physical exam. Because it was when Link was able to climb up the rope and reach the top of his cage that the experiments began. 

It quickly became clear why Vaati had paid such careful attention to his health and waited patiently for him to regain his strength; for if he hadn’t, Link felt he would have surely died.   
At first it started like a unpleasant doctors visit, with little innocent things such as getting his blood drawn, and then plasma. But then Link began waking up with strange cuts that were closed off with sutures he didn’t remember getting. Next, pockets of time started missing from his memory, as if he had suddenly fainted and then woken back up from a dreamless sleep. 

But it was the day Vaati injected liquid miasma into his veins that Link started to break. Thinking back to the little scuffle he had with Malon when she had been exposed to the cursed gas, he wondered how she was able to survive agony, and Link wondered if he would be able to do the same. Every inch of his body turned so cold it felt no diffrent than burning, while his lungs knocked against his ribcage, desperately grasping for breath. 

“Just as I thought.” Vaati said with the sterile, unfeeling gaze of a scientist. “No one is truly immune to miasma. You just seem to have an unheard of tolerance to it . . . vaguely similar to the rural country folk, and how they are less likely to die from a case of poisoning. But still.” Vaati muttered to himself he stepped away from and began jotting notes down on his clipboard. “Typical miasma poisoning from exposure to gas takes about a month to slowly ware down the host, while a server case takes a day. But that shot I just gave you would’ve been enough to kill someone in an instant.” 

“. . .Then are you trying to kill me?” Link asked, gasping for air as he clutched the arm that had gotten the shot.   
“Kill you? I would never. If you were to die, then how would I continue my research? Believe me, I learned my lesson last time.” Vaati said nonchalantly as he plucked a cottonball out of a glass jar with a pair of tweezers, dipped it into anti-bacterial alcohol, and carefully dabbed the small, open wound in the bend of Link’s arm. “Now which bandaid would you like? Today I have a pink kittens, and a green frog pattern.” Vaati said, smiling as he held up one of each pattern. 

The following days that passed were unremarkable, to a certain extent. Thankfully the worst of the experimentation was few and far between as it seemed Vaati truly did intend on keeping Link alive. Still, he remained a prisoner living inside a cage, and this fact never left Link’s mind for a single moment. Yet somehow . . . or perhaps because he had no other choice, Link eventually grew accustomed to his new life. He spent his days reading through stacks of texts which Vaati had left him, most of which seemed to be educational children's books with a focus of building vocabulary as there were definitions for the increasingly difficult words in the back of each book.

This kept Link busy well into the day, as Vaati would often replenish the finished texts with new ones, leaving them on the unspoken “In” pile, while taking away those in the “Out” pile. When Link would get tired of reading, or if his eyes would simply need a break, he would lay on his back and stare at the iron grated window, imagining that the bright blue of the sky was the only thing that existed outside these walls, flooding all of hyrule in a great ocean. Or perhaps instead of a great flood, all the world was simply floating in the sky in some sort of loft. Fleeting adventures of the mind wandered in and out of Link’s consciousness, in between naps, reading, and more experiments as the days melted into weeks into what felt like years. Though in all honesty, Link was vaguely aware he had been held captive for a little over a month, but his sense of time was quickly deteriorating as his only points of reference were the day he came here, and today, which was the day a little boy followed Vaati into the tower study.

He came in carrying an armful of texts and was dressed in a similar fashion of long, elegant robes that had a scholarly air about them, and this was accentuated by the rather serious look the boy wore on his face, as if he were already a grown, tired man that happend to be stuck in a child’s body.

“Just set it over by the fireplace, but not too close.” Vaati waved before sitting down at his desk and filing through a stack of papers.  
“Yes father.” The boy, promptly doing as told.  
 _“Father?_ ” Link thought to himself, nearly scoffing out loud as he squinted at the boy.

By some stretch of the mind, one could say that perhaps the boy simply took after his mother, and that must have been the case seeing as the two looked no more related than a couple of perfect strangers. For starters, their hair was on opposite ends of the color spectrum. The boy had deep, jet black hair that hung down to his ears in soft waves, and his eyes were a misty sort of green, like one would see in when a fog came down over the forst. But even the general structure of their faces were completely off as Vaati had a provocative, fox like face with sharp eyes and a delicate, heart shaped chin, while the boy had a more square, humble looking features and large sleepy eyes, which Link acutely noticed when the boy caught him staring and their eyes meet with an uncomfortable gaze.

  
“. . . Father. Is that the witch you were telling me about?” The boy said hesitantly.  
“Yes, why do you ask?”  
After a long pause, the boy spoke up.  
“. . . Is there a reason she’s in a cage?” the boy asked, his expression clearly disturbed.  
“To prevent her from escaping, of course.” Vaati laughed before his face eventually fell as he stared at his son, as if suddenly realizing something wasn’t quite right with the arrangements he’d made for Link. “It might seem strange but this is how it has to be.” He said quickly. “Her blood holds the key to unlocking the secret to destroying the miasma plague, and I cannot allow such a chance to escape me.”

The boy’s face softened just a bit with pragmatic understanding, though the distaste was still clear as he looked away with a wordless sigh.

“Don’t be that way!” Vaati said as he got out of his chair. “If I could build a small play house for her to live in I would, but King Rohan hardly gives me enough funds for my research, let alone prisoner comforts.”  
“So she’s a prisoner!?” The boy cried out.

Vaati paused for a moment, looking as if he were deciding on what to say.

“Technically speaking, yes.” He said carefully. “Any mage practicing magic without proper registration is a warrant for arrest.”  
“But she’s still a child like me! How can she be arrested?” The boy argued.  
“Well . . . You and I know better than anyone how our kingdom treats mages.” Vaati said with a dark look that was poorly concealed by a tense smile. “At least this way some good can actually come of it, unless you’d rather have her thrown in the dungeons with real criminals that is.”

Anger briefly flashed across the child’s face, as if he suddenly recalled something.

“No . . . I understand.” The boy said quietly, though his face was still despondent.

Vaati looked at the boy in a fond sort of pity as he thought for a moment before hurrying over.

“Now don’t make that face. Why don’t we cancel your training for the day? You’ve been working so hard lately and making such good progresse, I’m sure won’t day off won’t hurt.” Vaati said cheerfully as he scooped the boy up despite him being a little too old to be held.  
“Are you sure?” the boy said surprised.  
“Of course! I heard the chef is preparing a large batch of frozen custard for a banquet tonight. Why don’t we head down there and give it a little taste test?”  
“Okay.” The boy said with a soft smile.  
“Wonderful!” Vaati said as he set the boy down and hurried out the door, but quickly stuck his head back. “I nearly forgot, could you grab the report on my desk? I suppose now would be a good time to deliver it.” Vaati said before disappearing.

The boy went back across the room to fetch the stack of papers, turning to catch his gaze on Link for another moment that lingered a bit too long.

“Ravio! What’s taking you so long?”

The boy’s head snapped around at the sound of his name and he hurried off without a second glance.

***

From that day on, every now and then Link would wake up to find a new asset in his cage, whether it be a fine blanket, a more comfortable pillow, or interesting passtimes such as a riveting fiction novel or embroidery kit. Without a doubt, his favorite present were the flowers. Link sorely missed the outdoors, and the faint scent of nature on those delicate petals brought him great comfort. But on the other hand, his least favorite would have to be the very girly hair pins and ribbons he’d found in a small, but fine jewel box made of careful iron work wrought into vines over dark wood.

At first Link threw box to the corner of his cage, irritated not only with it, but also over the fact that after all this time, Vaati’s disinterest in noticing that Link was not a little girl had spread the confusion to Ravio, and likely anyone else who knew of his existence. But seeing as Vaati also didn’t care to have Link’s hair cut, he eventually resigned himself to using the ribbons, if only to keep is hair out of his face during reading time. On rare occasion the boy would return to the study with Vaati, but he didn’t regard Link very much, only offering a small smile whenever they would happen to meet each other’s gaze.

In a strange way, Link was started to get used to his new life, especially as the added comforts made his living situation become more tolerable. But despite any shallow sense of comfort or routine, with each passing day Link felt his heart sink down further into dread. Less afraid for himself, but despaired at the idea that he would never be able to return to the Lost Woods and see what became of the Great Fairy.

And it was on one of those days, deep into the night long after Vaati had left, when Link was endlessly contemplating his new reality; stricken with grief and unable to sleep that he saw a strange shadow suddenly pass by the iron grated window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for taking so long!! I was scrambling (more like intensely procrastinating) on getting the last of my assignments in and taking the final exam for my classes. This chapter is a little short and awkward because I had to bridge a point A of Link arriving to the castle, and point B ( a mystery!!), so over half of what i had already wrote I can't even post, but that means the next chapter will come out soon, especially since now i don't have to worry about school!! and I promise it will be longer!
> 
> Until then, I hope yall like what i have thusfar!


	6. A new . . . Friend?

Link blinked for a moment, trying to decide on what he just saw until eventually settling on idea that it had merely been a large bird. He stuck with that conclusion, almost settling down to sleep when suddenly the dark figure shot past the window again, and then for a third time before finally smashing into window with enough force to knock the iron grate to the floor, and send glass exploding out in every direction.

Hee shielded himself with his arm at the last second, wincing as tiny lacerations tore across his skin from the glass shower. Carefully moving his hands away from his face, he peaked through his fingers to see nothing but a harsh shadow cast by a bright, full moon, making it near impossible to see exactly what was there on the other side of the window before it crept inside and fell through, landing on the stone floor with a hard thud.

With nowhere to run, Link pulled his blanket close and cowered in the farthest corner of his cage as the sound of little feet scurried over. But unfortunately, as Link’s cage was placed in the center of the room, the dark shadow only ran around the side to where he was, and for a moment, he played a strange game with the mysterious figure as he would scramble to the opposite end of his cage before it would come chasing him in pursuit.

“W-Who is it!?” Link yelled, scrambling to a side of the cage where the window was behind his back, and the moon shone down on the dark figure stepping forward as they came to light.

A young girl with large, unyielding eyes stared at Link with almost hungry sort of fascination. She was covered head to toe in cuts varying in size, all of which were bleeding, but the worst of it was on her face. Blood streamed out from her nose, over her lips and dripped off her chin as she attempted to wipe it clean with the sleeve of her tattered nightgown, but failed miserably as there was simply so much blood, it was honestly a wonder she hadn’t yet fainted. Quickly loosing interest in cleaning up, with that same dirtied hand still wet with blood, she stuck her arm into the cage and reached for Link with an open palm.

“My names Zelda! Who’re you?” She said with intense curiosity.

Link stared at the girl, disturbed at the sight of her.

“I heard they brought a little witch here, but I didn’t think it was true.” She said eagerly reaching in to touch Link, as if he were a small animal in a petting zoo. “Do you wanna be friends? I’m a witch too!”

“. . . Well.” Link said with an anxious sigh, not entirely sure he wanted to. “I-I don’t know you very well . . . so I’m not sure how we could become friends.”

“Well then let’s get to know each other! I’ll go first! How come your in a cage?” Zelda asked without blinking.

“I . . . don’t know why. I was brought here against my will.” Link muttered.

“Oh. That’s boring.” Zelda sighed. “I’ve never seen the inside of Mr Vaati’s study before.” She said before wandering off, almost forgetting about Link entirely before looking through the man’s things.

“ . . .Hey! _Stop!_ Don’t touch anything!” Link yelled from his cage.

“Why not?”Zelda asked, unconcerned as she rummaged around.

“B-Because he’ll probably get mad!” Link cried, terrified at the idea of Vaati in a bad mood.

“I don’t care.” Zelda scoffed as she continued. “What’s he gonna do? _Say, that’s very unbecoming behavior for a princess.”_ Zelda mocked as she continued to open up scrolls and peek inside draws. “He’ll just do the same exact thing all the court advisors do, which is the same thing all the laides in waiting do, who all do the same as the cooks do, as the servants do, as the stable boys do.”

“. . . And what _do_ they all do?” Link asked, entirely un-amused.

Zelda suddenly turned around at Link and stared at him with a wide smile.

 _“Nothing.”_ She whispered, before breaking out into laughter alone. “Everyone . . . Everything here is so boring. Nothing ever changes, and it’s the same day over and over . . . But not you! Do you wanna be friends?” Zelda asked again, as if she’d forgotten she’d already asked moments before.

“. . . And what would you do if we became friends?” Link asked carefully.

“Hmmm, I don’t know. I haven’t really planned that far ahead yet.” Zelda said thoughtfully.“I never had a friend before so I don’t really know what friends do.”

“Oh . . .” Link said.

Of course there were no other children in the Great Faerei’s household, but the Lost Woods were vast, and he always had the neighboring kokiri spirits to play with when the Great Faerie was busy attending to her duties, and they were almost like children. And on the days the fog was thick and he was to be kept inside, Link got on well with many of the household servants who were more inclined to play with him rather than attend to their duties . . . but apparently that wasn’t the case here in Hyrule castle judging from the slight hint of scorn in the girl’s voice.

All of a sudden, Zelda looked (only a little) less like a feral creature that had escaped the wilderness, and more like that one kid you always had in class that was just a little bit creepy and spoke too loud, but always meant well.

“OH! I know! We can take a walk. Every day, one of my handmaidens takes me for a walk in the garden, and I suppose that’s something friends could do . . . But the garden’s cold at night so we’ll just have to walk around the castle. _Oh!_ We can walk to my bedchamber! I have lots of toys we can play with there. How does that sound?” Zelda said excitedly.

Link’s eyes widened with the thought of escape.

“That sounds nice!” He said, fully intending on making a break for it the second he got a chance. “. . . But how am I supposed to take a walk when I’m locked in here . . .”

“Oh, I can take care of that! Hold on!” Zelda said as she hurried over to the door of the cage and clasped her hands around the padlock.

“. . . W-What are you doing?” Link asked, backing away on instinct.

“I don’t really know, but if I concentrate . . . usually _something_ . . .” Zelda trailed off as she squeezed her eyes shut.

As she gripped her hands together, the air around them suddenly started to crackle with electricity as small zaps clicked, faster and louder like the cracks of oncoming lightning until all of a sudden in the blink of an eye, the study was flooded with a blinding white light as the air became unbearably hot. A terrible gust of wind washed over everything like a storm, and then there was stillness. When Link opened his eyes, a small stream of ash fell through Zelda’s fingers as she looked down on her handiwork with a pleased smile. The cage door was also wide open, though it was just barely hanging onto it’s hinge, and going outward from there, the bars of his cage were mangled, leaving a wide, tear drop shaped gap as if someone had pulled them aside like a pair of curtains.

Although it seemed impossible with all of the broken glass scattered around before, Vaati’s study looked now even more of a wreck than it had been moments before as the great gust of wind had knocking everything onto the floor, while chunks of metal where also strewn into the mix, having shot bullet holes through various objects, or singeing random bits of fabric and parchment when they were still white hot. 

“Alright let’s go!” Zelda said as she went for the door and threw it open.

Link carefully stepped down from the cage, taking a moment to feel the cool stone underneath his bare feet for the first time since he’d been brought here. Tiptoeing around shards of broken glass and razor sharp metal scraps, he followed Zelda out of the study without looking back.

“Whoah.” Link said to himself as he stared up at the massive arches of the castle in awe.

Forgetting himself for just a moment, he looked around aimlessly at the spectacle of the castle as if he were seeing it for the first time, before quickly bringing himself back as he tried to search for a way out. But unfortunately, he’d stayed in the study for too long and couldn’t remember which way Vaati had come when he’d originally been brought here. Still, he tried to remember the way the best he could as he followed Zelda down the halls, watching her long chestnut hair fly through the air behind her as they ran. 

Eventually they made it into what Link assumed to be a different, more residential part of the castle as everything suddenly appeared to be much less daunting and cold, and more inviting with a lived in feel to it. A visibly worn carpet was rolled out and ran down the center of the hall. Brooms and dustpans were discreetly tucked away in small corners, and live plants were potted around large windows that framed all of the outside realm. Curious to get a look, Link stopped hurrying after Zelda for a moment and strayed off towards the window. When he got there, he was just barely able to see out as the windowsill was rather high up, while Link (even when compared to other children like Malon, Zelda, and Ravio) was a tad bit on the shorter side. But when he did see out over the other side, Links heart filled with both wonder, and dread.

The castle went out for miles, with buildings, bridges, and towers of all shapes and sizes, all connecting to each other in a maze of stone and ivy. And beyond that in the blurred distance, Link saw just the faintest outline of a massive city that filled the horizon. Not a single field or forest in sight. He couldn’t even begin to imagen how he would find his way out of the castle without getting caught, let alone make his way through the city. In a single moment, the world suddenly grew so much more wide, and the question of whether he would be able to find the Great Faerie in all of it became so much more heavy.

“What are you doing?” Zelda yelled in a theater whisper. “If we don’t keep moving we’ll get caught, and then the royal guard will make us go see father!”

“. . . And who’s that supposed to be?” Link said, wary of anyone with the title _‘father’_ after meeting Ravio’s.

“King Rohan.” Zelda said plainly. “If we have to go talk to him, won’t let me have dessert for two weeks.” she pouted. “I don’t know what he’d do to you though. Do you like desserts?” 

“Wait. . . _What?”_ Link said as his head started spinning.

“Do you like desserts?” Zelda repeated.

“No. Before that!” Link snapped. “If . . . If the king is your father, than wouldn’t that make you—?”

“Princess Zelda!?” A voice suddenly yelled.

Link and Zelda felt their heart drop down into their stomach as they both whipped around at the sound, with Link relaxing once he saw the speakers face, while Zelda pulled a nasty scowl. 

“Ravio.” Zelda spat. “What are _you_ doing up this late?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” Ravio spat right back with a seemingly equal amount of dislike.

“Well I asked you first!” said Zelda.

Still dressed in his day clothes, the boy marched over, pulling along a small wagon piled books, scrolls, stacks of parchment and various other things all neatly packed together.

“I just got back from the library.” Ravio breathed. “I was there studying when it got late and it’s a long walk back.”

 _“Nerd.”_ Zelda scoffed.

 _“Shut up!_ Anyway what are you doing out here? . . And what are _you_ doing outside of father’s study!?” Ravio gasped, finally looking past his disagreement with Zelda to notice Link. 

“I . . .I went for a walk.” Link said quietly.

Ravio frowned, somewhat reluctant to scold Link.

“You can’t do that, father won’t like this. . .”

“Who cares what your father likes? All Link has to do is say he wants to leave, and then he can just walk out the door!” Zelda said stubbornly.

 _“It’s not that simple!”_ Ravio hissed. “Not like you would know since you always get whatever you want because your a _royal brat!”_

“I am not!” Zelda yelled back.

_“Yes you are!”_

_“No I’m—!”_

“WHO GOES THERE!?” called a new voice, quickly followed by the sound of clinking armor.

The three children gasped. While Zelda and Link stood there unsure what to do, Ravio grabbed his staff off the wagon and cast a spell in the blink of an eye. When Link turned over, the boy was gone, or so he thought that is, until something he couldn’t see grabbed him and pulled him into the shadows.

“Princess Zelda, what are you doing out here alone at night? It’s dangerous!” 

“By god, look at her . . .” said a second guard, catching up with the first.

“I’m not alone! I was—.” Zelda said before she turned around to see an empty hall with nothing but a wagon.

“Have you been in the library?” said the first guard, turning to the second. “That’s across the grand courtyard on the other end of the castle!”

“No I wasn’t! It was Ravio!”

The first guard frowned with an unamused stare.

“Now princess, we all know you don’t get on well with the court magicians son, but he’s not even here right now.”

“But he was! He’s—!” Zelda started as she desperately looked around until her eyes settled on a rather peculiar corner of the hall that was completely cloaked in shadow. He’s right there! Can’t you see him!?”

“Princess . . . I think it’s time you get back to bed. Come with us.”

“But—!” Zelda started before the second guard picked her up and carried her away.

“By Hylia, princess what happend to you? Your covered in glass!” The second guard gasped. “Should we take her to the infirmary? Or straight to the King.”

“No, her handmaidens can pick out the glass, the infirmary has better more important things to worry about.”

 _“Are you sure?_ This is the princess we’re talking about! And she has blood all over herself!”

“Your just new here. Believe me when I say it’ll take a lot more than that to kill her, can’t you see her bleeding has already stopped?”

“Oh . . . Well then what about the books?” the second guard asked, their voices faded into the distance.

“Forget the books! They’ll be here when we come back.” The solider snapped.

And with that the two soldiers disappeared with the little girl.

 _“And that’s what you get.”_ Ravio snickered to himself as he let go of Link.

“How did they not see us?” Link asked, amazed.

“Oh, that was a just an invisibility spell. I’d been practicing it for the past few months . . . Thank goodness I was able to get the hang of it just in time.”

“Really? Well then why didn’t Zelda cast one? Is she unable to cast difficult spells?”

“No, Princess Zelda has strong magic . . . but she’s not very good at controlling it. _Or_ memorizing spells.” Ravio said, highly amused at the fact. “But enough about her! Let’s get you back to father’s study before anyone notices your gone.”

Ravio hurried to gather his wagon and started down the hall, getting several paces ahead before stopping to notice the absence of following footsteps.

“Are you not coming?” Ravio said quietly, without turning around.

Link stared out the large windows with no answer, and a heavy silence filled the air.

“Well . . . If you want to leave I won’t stop you.” Ravio said as he finally turned back. “Just be careful when your out there. I know things aren’t exactly pleasant with my father, but out there it’s much worse. 

“I’m coming.” Link said, his voice barely audible. “Like you said . . . things aren’t that simple.”

The two continued on without another word until they returned to Vaati’s study, and the silence was abruptly broken by Ravio’s horrified scream once he saw the state of the room.

“What _happen!?”_

“Oh!” Link gasped, suddenly remembering how he’d encountered Zelda in the first place. “Well you see Zelda . . . . happend.” Link said, unsure how else to put it.

Somehow the study looked worse than Link remembered. He suddenly notice the mess Zelda had made of Vaati’s desk, with stacks of books knocked over, documents and opened scrolls spilling out across the floor, and every drawer left open, while the other side of the room was completely covered in scraps of metal and glass. Link carefully tiptoed his way across and crawled back into the center of the busted cage.He shook the glass off his blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders tight as a cold wind blew in freely through the now broken window.

“Well. . . goodnight then.” Link said.

Ravio stood there for a moment, frowning.

“. . . No.” Ravio said after a while.

“What do you mean?” Link asked.

“Just. . . _follow me.”_ Ravio grumbled. “This is no place to sleep. . . and I don’t want you to be here when father see’s all of this.” 

Link blinked at him for a moment in surprise, before quickly jumping down from the cage. He took his the blanket along, wrapping around his shoulders like a cape and followed Ravio down out the study, into the hall and around a few corners until he finally stopped to unlock a door that lead into a small, but cozy den filled with bookshelves, a chaise lounge, and a smallcoffee table by a fireplace.

“This is father’s private library. You should be safe here since nobody but him and I can enter.” Ravio said as headed for the fireplace and crouched down to throw in a few short logs "I’ll come fetch you in the morning when we have the study sorted out.”

He cast a rather weak fire spell onto some kindling, but it was more than enough to set it ablaze as he quickly threw it into the fireplace. And soon, the once cold and bleak looking library flushed back into life as the fire casted a warm, golden glow across the room.

“You can sleep here. Sometimes I fall asleep when reading, so it’s really comfortable.” Ravio said as he pointed at the couch. “I’ll go get your things.” He said before hurrying back out the door.

Alone, Link climbed onto the chaise, pulled his blanket tight, and did the only thing he’d been able to do ever since he’d arrived at the castle. He waited, and ruminated in thought.

Ravio returned after what seemed like a long while with an armful of things Link recognized from his cage, and a few things he didn’t.

“Your pillow was filled with too much glass so I had to run to the nearest laundry room to find another one.” Ravio said quickly, somewhat out of breath. “Here.”

He handed Link a new pillow, set down a short stack of his pastime books on the ground, and neatly set the wooden jewel box containing the hair ribbons on top.

“Now before I go, come here so I can see your arms.” Ravio said as he pulled a small box box out from the inside of his robes and sat down on a thick carpet spread out in front of the fireplace.

Link sat down across from Ravio, watching as the boy pulled out a pair of tweezers and began to carefully extract the bits of glass lodged in Link’s skin.

“When did you notice?” Link said, astonished.

“How could I not notice?” Ravio muttered as he tried to focus on the process. “Princess Zelda has a strong constitution and magic protecting her. By now her body has already forced out any of the glass that was still stuck inside her, but you’ll just end up with an infection if it’s left alone like this. Father will be too angry to look at you tomorrow, and I doubt anyone would be willing to send you a nurse. So I have to take care of it.” Ravio finished as he plucked the last shard of glass, dropped it with all the others in a small bowl, and rolled up his sleeves. “Now hold out both of your arms.”

Link did as told and immediately felt a cooling sensation across his skin as a soft, green glow came out from Ravio’s hands.

“You can use healing magic?” Link said, amazed.

“Just a little.” Ravio said shortly as he tried to focus, visibly struggling as the gentle blue light flickered every now and then.

Link smiled fondly, as it reminded him of all the times the Great Faerie had sat him down to take care of whatever mess he had gotten himself into.

“How do you cast healing magic?” Link asked, curious to know what he’d failed to learn from the Great Faerie when he had the chance.

“Oh, well getting started is pretty easy as long as you know the arcane spell for light.”

“Do you mean this?” Link said, briefly pulling an arm away to trace the sigil for light into the carpet in a dimly glowing lines of blue light.

“That’s perfect!” Ravio said as he reached over and traced a few more lines of glowing light. “Next you just add a few strokes and . . .” Ravio lifted his hand after tracing the final mark, the sigil flushed from blue into a soft, misty green before dissipating into thin air, and reappearing around his hand. “And now you have a healing spell! But that’s the easy part. Sustaining it is a little more difficult . . .”

“And how do you do that?” Link asked, returning his arms to Ravio.

“Well first you have to have a lot of focus since it’s a spell of creation that falls under Yang branch of magic . . . But if your just trying to cast the spell, all you really have to do is think of . . .” Ravio’s voice trailed off as his ears started to burn red. “ . . . Someone . . . You care about a lot.”

“Oh.” Link smiled, highly amused. “ _And who are you thinking about?”_

“Not telling.” Ravio said shortly as red started to creep up his throat and across his face.

Ravio made a point to avoid any eye contact for the next few minutes as the last of the cuts across Link’s arms faded into thin lines before disappearing entirely.

“That should be enough.” Ravio said as he quickly got to his feet and hurried to the door, hesitating for a moment before he rushed out. “G-Goodnight.” He said quickly before slamming the door shut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ravioli ravioli give me the formyouoli . . . . LMAOOOO JUST KIDDING. 
> 
> HEY YALL SORRY FOR TAKING FOREVER TO UPDATE i've been working on some original stuff but hit a wall with that so i decided to crawl back into my comfort zone which is zeldo fanfic. I hope you've all been well and are staying safe! I've been eating fried chicken and going crazy in my unemployed social isolation but you know same old same old. The good thing is that I had a little bit more of the story outlined, so a new chapter should come out sooner than later! But you know what they say, never trust a fic author when they talk about updating to avoid disappointment.


	7. Easy like a walk in the park

After all that had happend, Link had not the slightest clue what the following morning would bring. Would Vaati come after him in a fit of rage for the destruction of his office? Would the king place him with blame simply for being present when his daughter was injured and have him thrown in the dungeons?

Or on the opposite end, even released if Vaati finally had enough and wanted nothing more to do with him.

But somehow, the idea of simply being set loose and left alone in Central Hyrule was even more terrifying than being locked in the dungeons. At least if he were behind bars or in his familiar cage, he knew what to expect. But in that strange unknown, Link couldn’t even begin to imagine what could happen, not to mention the foreboding way Vaati and Ravio spoke about how magicians were treating outside the castle walls. And thus Link spent a good portion of the night asleep twisting and turning over the possibilities until finally, he fell asleep.

But come morning, not once did Link ever imagine that a maid would barge in, swinging a keychain on her finger with one hand, holding a garment bag in the other.

“Get in the dress.” She said with a grim look, while two more, slightly younger maids quickly followed her inside. “By Hylia we have a lot of work to do. . .” The head maid said, her tired scowl aging her already mature face.

The years had not been kind to this woman. Her dark hair was so heavily streaked with random shots of grey, at first glance you may have thought it were white. Wrinkles (save the prominent absence of laugh lines) ran across her forehead and spread out from around her tired, sunken in eyes. Though if you were to take a closer look, this time at more reliable tells of age such as the hands and neck which still seemed plump and firm with youth, one might reconsider her age and assume she was simply challenged in the face. Or perhaps she had an extremely stressful job, judging by her uniform which seemed a bit more prestigious when compared to the other maids.

“Who are you? And why are you here!?” Link cried as the two younger maids swarmed around him, gently pulling at his hair, clothes and delicate limbs to examine them.

“I am Ms. Greta, and at her highnesses’s request, with Master Vaati’s discretion, the young witch Link has been summoned to accompany Princess Zelda throughout her schedule for the day and assume the role as her newest lady in waiting. And it’s _my_ job to make sure you you _look_ the part of such an esteemed role.”

 _“WHAT!?”_ Link yelled, almost wishing he were back in the cage as he squirmed to get away from the maids. “But I can’t! I’m a boy! Vaati told all you people wrong, I’m not a girl, _I’m a boy!!_ ” 

“Don’t think a bold faced lie will get you out of it.” Ms. Greta snapped.

“Besides, ya’ wouldn’t make fur’ a very good lookin’ boy.” Said the first of the two maids, wistfully admiring Link’s long, grown out hair. “I’ve attended to many of the fine ladies in the king’s court, but I’ve never seen such golden hair! It’s as if the sun spilled itself out onto yer’ wee little head the day you were born.”

 _“Honestly!_ Your such a beautiful young lady, if you were actually a boy, I’d bet you would only get mistaken for a girl!” said the second.

“I imagine it would make romance quite awkward as well.”The first added, before the two young maids started snickering together.

“Regardless of all that—!” Ms. Greta said loudly, threatening the two girls with a dangerous glare that quickly earned their silence. “From what I’ve heard you’ve already had a little playdate with the princess. To have the opposite sex fraternizing with her royal highness would be an absoute scandal. If anything you should be absolutely _elated_ your not a boy, otherwise you’d be locked up for defamation of the princesses honor, _if not worse.”_

“ . . . Ok.” Link said in a weak voice as he felt his heart drop. “B-But at least let me get dressed by myself!” Link said before he broke free from the maids.

He snatched the garment bag and made a break for it, heading for the back left corner of the study where just as he predicted, was a private bathroom just like in Vaati’s office, and before the maids could even argue, he had already locked the door behind him.

“This will not do! A lady of your current stature dressing herself is positively _obscene!”_ The maids yelled from the other side.

“Well . . . Sucks.” Link said under his breath.

He laid the garment bag out on a table meant for folding clothes, and slowly started to unpack the articles of clothing one by one, which in all honesty, turned out to be quite a lot, and the longer it went on, the more Link regretted his decision to get dressed on his own.

Eventually, after about twenty minutes of making slim to zero progress on getting dressed while the maids knocked endlessly at the door (much to his irritation), Link settled on simply donning his undergarments, stockings, and petticoat to avoid any discoveries that might have him thrown in the dungeon. Then with a heavy sigh he unlocked the bathroom and let the maids have at it.

The girls made quick work of him, and as much as Link hated to admit it, it was actually quite a pleasent experience, as if he were taking a trip at the a spa. The best part by far was when they washed his hair, which was something he hadn’t really been able to do since he arrived at the castle. It felt like a massage as they gently dipped the back of his head into the warm water and rubbed bright, floral soaps into his scalp. Still, the maids throughly complained at the lack of a bath, and if they had it their way, they would’ve stripped him down and dunked Link in the water entirely.

But of course, they did not have it their way, because fortunately for Link, time was on his side as the appointment to meet princess Zelda for breakfast was not much later; and so they settled for wiping his upper half down with damp clothes and dousing him with gentle perfume that smelled of crisp, morning air and fresh linen.

“Awh, poor dearie . . . Don’t ya’ worry. I’m sure it’ll get better with age.” The first maid said, glancing at Link’s (reasonably) flat chest with a sympathetic look.

“Yeah, this one over here’s flat as a board but she hasn’t given up on finding love yet . . . _Even though she probably should.”_ The second maid scoffed before coming at Link from behind and slipping a very unnecessary bralett around him.

“Oh would you please _shut up.”_ The first maid huffed huffed, pushing the second girl aside as she stepped towards Link.

She began layering undershirt, upon blouse, upon bodice, from which she quickly began weaving a ribbion left and right through eyelets on either side, bringing the front panels of the bodice close together and cinching Link’s non-existent waist.

“Do ya’ think we’ll need the corset?” she added, looking up from her lacework with a skeptical frown. “I think we’d just end up choke’n the poor girl. She’s already thin as a rail.”

“Wow. Can’t relate to that.” The second maid sighed as she tied a padded waist cushion around Link’s waist, so when the additional petite coats and skirts were pulled over him, they were all beautifully propped up into a fine bustle, resulting a cascading waterfall of silken fabrics. “Still, I hope all of this doesn’t weigh her down. It’s usually the opposite problem with the other girls, but I’m almost worried she might drown under all this. . . .”

“It’s just one day. I’ll put in an order for clothes more accommodating to her measurements.” The head maid said as she whipped out what looked like the most beautiful scarf made of snow white cotton embroidered with bright, vibrent threads stitched into the shapes of wildflowers and birds of paradise. After neatly folding it into a large triangle, Ms. Greta laid it down across Link’s bare shoulders, pulled it around his neck and down into the bodice’s décolletage before pinning it in place with a golden broach. “Besides, the girls won’t be doing anything strenuous. Just a walk through the gardens before the Princess will attend to her lessons.”Ms. Greta continued shooing other maids aside and approaching Link with a makeup brush.

“Still, I can’t believe they expected us to have her ready on such short notice.”The first maid said, coming up behind Link to finish up his hair. 

“Thank Hylia the girl doesn’t have any major blemishes, otherwise we’d be here all day.” The head maid said, painting a simple wash of color across Link’s eyelids to bring out the soft, sky blue color behind them. “This is all we have time to do.” She continued, aggressively pinching Link’s cheeks until they took on a natural blush. “Now get your shoes on! We’re meant to be down by private dining hall in five minutes!”

“Oh just a minute!” the first maid complained, tucking away the last few bits of Link’s hair as she braided all of it in quick, but regal looking updo. “I’m Lynn by the way. Usually I tend to the princess, but bet we’ll be seeing lots of each other now that your a lady in waiting.” The first maid said, bending down into Link’s line of sight with a smile.

While the second maid buckled Link’s shoes on and pulled on light shawl over him, Lynn took what little time she had left to meticulously arrange a few strands of hair to frame his face with a few loose curls before hurrying behind him and pushing him out the door.

***

As the group exited the court magician’s tower, the hard, wooden heels of Link’s shoes clicked down the stone hall with an uneven rhythm as he clutched the arm of the maid nearest to him, fearful he might fall forward at any second. He’d been hopeful after hearing the day had nothing more than a walk in the gardens planned. But now even _walking_ was proving to be a challenge.

In a group effort, the two of maids half carried the boy down a large, winding staircase, while the third, walked a few paces ahead, constantly turning around, preparing herself to catch a stumbling elf at any moment until finally, they all relaxed upon they arriving at a rather lively main hall.

The denizens of Hyrule Castle of were all in a hurry, bustling past one another in a maze of foot traffic as servants, scholars and soldiers were all anxious to get a start on their day and attend to their various duties. And perhaps he were just imagining it, but Link could’ve sworn he saw a familiar looking head of long, silvery hair tinged with a purple hue flash at the far end of the room before disappearing down another hall. Link tensed up for a moment, but realized that even if Vaati could pick him out in the crowd, he’d probably have a hard time recognizing him.

And so they continued on their way until eventually the echo of voices and footsteps faded into the distance behind them while the mouthwatering smell of food came into the air, growing stronger and more defined into specific foods until the group took a sharp turn into through a pair of double doors and entered the grand dining hall.

“Terribly sorry for the wait your highness.” Ms. Greta said, taking a deep bow at the far end of a long dining table that coud likely have served fifty or more guests.

“Awh Link your so pretty!” Zelda as she jumped up from her seat and threw her arms around the boy, squeezing him in a death-grip of a hug. “If it wasn’t for your smelly aura I wouldn’t have even recognized you!”

 _“Smelly?”_ Link spat.

“Yeah! Your aura always smells like grass! I bet you grew up in a forest or something.” Zelda said, finally letting him go to return to her breakfest. “Do you like hotcakes? The chef always makes me hotcakes so I told him to make you some too, but they might be a little cold by now.”

Link stared at the girl, a touch disturbed at her accuracy of guessing his upbringing, but more-so confused by her ‘transformation’ as well. When Zelda said she could barely recognize him, the same could be said about herself because Link had a hard time understanding how the wild, absolute grimlin of a little girl from the night before could magically transform into . . . well, a princess.

But at second glance, it really wasn’t so hard as few choice mannerisms gave her away. The minute long attention spand. The hyperactive fidgeting when she’d drum her fingers on the table or shake her leg. And the intense look in her eyes, as if hundreds of throughs were rushing through her mind a million miles per second. Despite the dream like gown woven from purple and white silk, her intricately braided hair, and of course, the shining tiara atop her head, this was certainly, still the same Zelda. 

“If you don’t mind, my lady.” one of the maids said, pulling a chair out for him.

“Oh, right . . .” Link said, taking a seat before turning to Zelda. “But why did you call me down if you weren’t even going to wait?” Link said, frowning at Zelda’s half eaten plate.

Of course _he’d_ been the one to arrive a late, but the poor manners still stung a little, and it tore down the already fragile promise of friendship. Link always remembered how the Great Faerie would hunt him down to make sure they had at least one meal a day together, and how even when he clearly had no appetite, Malon and her grandparents would always insist he at least sit down with them for company during their meals. The overdone wealth and opulence of the dining hall suddenly seemed cold and hallow, and even though the plate before him looked stunning, he would’ve given anything to be back home, or inside that simple cottage back at Lon Lon Ranch.

“Was I supposed to wait?” Zelda asked, her large, dark brown eyes filled with curiosity.

“Well . . . usually people are supposed to eat _together_. Especially when you _invite_ them.” Link huffed.

Zelda blinked at Link for a long pause before quickly turning to the head maid standing behind her.

“Ms. Greta, are people really supposed to eat together?” Zelda asked, with a worried look. “How come I’ve never eaten with anyone before?”

Ms. Greta, and the two younger maids behind her suddenly got a panicked look. Even the silent, apron donned servants from the kitchen who were idly tidying the dining area, or waiting to pour the princess another glass of water suddenly froze mid-motion, as if a dark secret had been let out and they would all be punished for it.

A heavy silince weighed in the dining room as Link’s eyes bounced from each person in the room.

“A’hem . . . W-Well you see princess . . . . Lady Link here . . . _Has clearly come from a far away land where such things are custom!_ A-And while it’s not _entirely_ uncommon for people in Hyrule to eat together . . . It’s also perfectly normal to eat alone! Especially if one is a princess!”

 _“Really?”_ Zelda asked with quite fascination. 

“O-Of course! You see, in Hyrule, the working class might eat together because their food is cooked all at once! So it would make more sense for them to eat together while the food is still hot instead of taking turns, but since your a princess, and your food is made especially for you there’s no need for you to wait for anyone else. That’s also why the king never eats with you, because since he’s the king, his food is also made special! And if you were to eat together, someone’s food would always get cold by the time the other person’s is made ready!” Greta said, hands shaking as she folded her arms behind her back.

Link stared in disbelief at everone present, waiting for someone to say something, but all of their faces were so clearly terrified, desperately banking on the fact that Zelda has likely never set foot in a kitchen her entire life.

“Ohhhh, that makes a lot of sense!” Zelda said cheerfully. “Well, I guess things here are just a little diffrent from the forest you grew up in, but that’s okay! From now on I’ll wait for you to get here before I start eating. I think . . . It would be nice to eat with someone from now on.” She said with a small smile.

“. . . Thanks.” Link said, starting down at his plate, suddenly at a loss of appetite.

***

Fortunately, afternoon was smoother ride. By the time the small procession had made their way over the gardens, Link had finally gotten the hang of walking in heels. As the gates opened, a cool wind rushed over him, and Link suddenly realized how sorely he’d missed nature. Or at least as close as the gardens could come to “nature”.

With more flowers than he’d thought possible to exist, the gardens were an overwhelming, almost gaudy display of color, much unlike the typical wilderness where color was simply speckled in among the neutral, earthy tones. Still, it was better than nothing, and Link was going to take whatever he could get.

Zelda also seemed a bit more calm in the outdoors, and was actually rather pleasant to have around as she trotted along after him across the cobblestone path where they chased butterflies and the local garden cat. In fact, Link was having such a good time he forgot himself for a moment. Kicking off his heels, he ran after garden cat, chasing it up a tree as he swung himself up with ease into the branches until he was hidden among the leaves.

 _“Woah!”_ Zelda gasped, standing at the base of the tree. “Link how’d you do that!?”

“Do what?” Link called down before turning his attention back to the cat, beckoning with a wave of his hand for it to come closer.

“You climbed that tree so fast! Like you were a bug or something!”

 _“Excuse me?”_ Link snapped, swinging down to the lowest reaching a branch and hooking his legs around it to hang upside down and look at Zelda.

 _“Woah, you did it again!_ I wanna try!” Zelda squealed as she reached her small hands up.

Link rolled his eyes with a reluctant smile he and let down his arms, and after a bit of jumping on Zelda’s part, the two of them were able to clasp each other’s hands.

 _“Ugh!_ U-Use your feet!” Link grunted as he struggled to pull the girl up.

Of course Link had never been the strongest out there, but sitting inside a cage for several months hadn’t been much help either.

“How? What am I supposed to use my feet for?” Zelda asked, gleefully kicking her feet in random directions as she dangled about a foot above ground.

“Use them on the trunk! Like your trying to walk up a wall!” Link said, struggling to keep her airborn.

But despite following his instruction perfectly, Zelda was now at a perfect 180 degree angle, which wasn’t any more ideal than the position they had been in moments ago. But with little bit of twisting around Link managed to pull Zelda onto the branch he was sitting on, although she was laying flat on her stomach with both arms and legs wrapped around the branch.

“There you go.” Link breathed, relieved for the small ordeal to be over.

Or so he thought it was over, that is until Lynn, one of the maids in their attendance finally noticed that both of the children had disappeared and two pairs of legs were mysteriously hanging from the branches of a far off tree.

“Princess! Princess is that you!?” the maid desperately called as she ran over with the other maid on her heels. “Your highness I insist you come down from that tree this instant!”

“Why? I like being up here!” Zelda complained, struggling to pull her legs up and away from the maid’s reach.

“Your highness it’s unbecoming for a princess to take part in such activities! Not to mention that you could get hurt should you fall!” Lynn yelled.

“I-I’ll go find the gardener and have him bring a ladder!” the second maid said before hiking up her skirts and bolting off. 

“But I _won’t_ fall! Besides, Link is here!” Zelda yelled, struggling to sit herself upright. “Link is really good at climbing tress, so if I start to slip she’ll catch me! _Right Link?”_ Zelda said, turning to him with large, pleading eyes.

“Well . . .” Link said, not wanting to complicate things any further. “Of I wouldn’t let you _fall_ but . . . Maybe we should just listen to your handmaidens? I don’t want to make anyone worry. We can climb trees another time.” Link said, already swinging himself back to the ground.

“See princess! Why don’t you listen to your friend and come down! You can climb trees another time.” Lynn said, exasperated.

“No!” Zelda cried. “Link, their lying! They’ve already made a big fuss about it, and whenever they make a fuss about something they never keep their promises afterwords!”

“Your highness that isn’t true!” Lynn snapped back.

 _“Yes it is!_ Because you people said the same thing about Castle Town! And Hanteo Village! And the Zora domain! And we never wen’t back to _any_ of those places!”

 _“And who’s fault is that!?”_ Lynn snapped. “We can’t take you anywhere because you bring down chaos upon everything in your wake!”

_“I found him!”_ the second maid called, returning with the gardener right behind her.

“I’ve got the ladder!” A young man said, unsure of what was going on, and seemingly reluctant to find out the second he laid eyes on the princess.

He propped the ladder up against the tree trunk, firmly digging it’s feet into the dirt before stepping back several paces, then for a moment, the gardener, and two maids all looked to one another in a stand off, as if waiting for someone to go ahead.

“How long have you two worked here?” The gardener said tentatively. “I’ve been here for six seasons.”

“I’ve also been here for six seasons, starting in the summer.” The second maid said, turning to Lynn with an anxious look.

 _“. . . Three.”_ Lynn hissed through her teeth.

 _“Oh thank Hylia.”_ The gardener breathed while the maid immediately let out a deep sigh of relief.

The two of them backed up a good mesure watched with sympathy as Lynn jerkedup her skirts in an angry fit, marched up the ladder.

“Princess! It’s time you come down!” The maid shouted reluctantly.

 _“No!_ You’ll never let me come back out again!” Zelda screamed, kicked and scratching at the maid.

Finally loosing patience, Lynn grabbed the girl’s wrists with one hand and quickly hooked an arm around her torso, effectively dragging the girl out with minimal resistance as if she’d been trained to do.

 _“NO!”_ Zelda screamed as she clenched both of her hands around the maids arms and struggled to pry them off her body.

As Lynn grappled with the girl, trying to hold onto both her and the ladder when a violent wind suddenly came through, darkening the sky and whipping everyone’s hair against their faces. Even the heavy skirts piled onto Link’s waist billowed in the air like hanging laundry in a typhoon, but despite all of that, it was only when an unbearable heat came down upon them that Link felt a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

 _“Zelda go of her!”_ Link screamed, the howling wind nearly drowning out his voice.

But it was already too late. In a matter of seconds, as the sound of clicking electricity filled the background, a blinding light flashed in the sky, and when they could see the once beautiful gardens were now consumed in inferno, and the shadowy silhouette of both Zelda and the maid fell out of the tree, their bodies hitting the ground with a gross, rag-doll like thud.

“Zelda!? Miss Lynn!??” Link yelled as he hurried over, with one of the maids right behind him, while the gardener bolted back towards the castle to get help. “Miss Lynn are you—!?”

Link’s voice died in his throat as he attempted to turn over the maid’s body, grabbing at the arm folded around Zelda, only for it to pull away entirely from her shoulder. Link screamed as the dismembered limb fell into his skirts, quickly followed by all the blood gushing out wound on the now unconscious maid.

“What . . .” Zelda, eyes with shock as she pulled herself up from the ground. “Did. . . Did I . . .”

 _“Your highness don’t look!”_ the second maid shouted as she grabbed at the princess, pulling away and covering her eyes with a shaking hand.

Link’s mind seemed to draw a blank, yet run at a million miles per second as he struggled to process what was even happening before his eyes. Should he worry about Zelda’s terrifying power? Burning alive in gardens flames all around him? Or worst, the young woman dying right before him in his lap. He squeezed his eyes shut and desperately wished the Great Faerie was here. She always knew what to do, but more than that, Link sorely missed the comfort of simply having her near, and the feeling of knowing that everything was going to be alright. Ever since he’d been separated from her, he’d been through nothing but fear and terror. To have that gentle peace of mind back would mean more than anything.

“M-My lady . . . Link! Your hands!” the maid gasped.

Link opened his eyes at the sound of his name, and looked down to see his hands glowing a faint green that was cool to the touch.

“You casted magic. . . and without a sigil at that.” The maid said, her expression in awe, but also afraid as she looked at Link like she were meeting him for the first time.

Link watched as the blood pouring out from the woman’s shoulder slowed just a little, before he desperately clasped his hands over the wound and watched it come to a crawl. But just when he thought they were in the clear, everything in Link’s sight went double in a wavering light, and his whole body felt off kilter in a sudden fit of vertigo. After feeling his stomach drop, Link was trying so hard to stay conscious that he didn’t even notice the cool rain gently misting down from above, snuffing out the fire. 

Only at the sound of a certain voice, did a strike of fear pull Link out of his foggy daze.

 _“Will that be all?”_ Vaati snapped, cerulean blue light still glowing at the end of his staff “I have much more important work to attend to.”

“Nobody cares about your messy office.” A woman spat.

Link whipped his head around to see the man in toe with a woman of equal age. She wore large, silver rimmed glasses shaped in two perfect circles, and as the sun re-appeared through the clouds of smoke and steam, her eyes flashed like two full moons every now and then when the light it them just right.

“And what about the maid?” The woman snapped, clearly lacking the fear everyone else seemed to have when dealing with Vaati.

“Take her to the infirmary or deal with it yourself Purah. I’m the Court _Magician_. Not the court _healer_.” Vaati snapped, already marching back towards the castle, his robes fluttering behind him. 

And with that he disappeared into the few remaining clouds of steam before it all cleared into an empty path. 

_“That son of a—.”_ Purah hissed under her breath as she marched over.

She knelt down and pulled the unconscious maid into her arms, then shot Link an impatient look.

“You. Come with me to the infirmary.”

Link blinked at the woman, almost ready to follow her before he saw the severed arm still laying in his lap.

“Leave it.” Purah said, grabbing Link by the wrist, pulling him up to his feet, and watching the limb tumble to the ground without so much as a sideways glance. “She won’t be needing it anymore. Even magic can’t fix that.”

Link wasn’t sure of the woman’s reasons, but he didn’t argue as his head was still spinning and his body felt absolutely drained of all energy.

“And you will accompany the young lady.” Purah called, snapping her finger at the young maid nearby.

“But what about the princess?”

“Specially trained soldiers will take care of it. Unless you insist on doing things yourself and risk winding up like your friend here.” Purah said darkly.

The maid suddenly scrambled away from princess as if she were instead holding a large snake, and left the girl alone on the ground. Zelda stared at the ground with a hallow expresion as several odd looking soldiers dressed in plates of dark, royal armor layered over long robes appeared on either side, circling around her until she was compleatly out of view.

Link gave one last backwards glance, somehow feeling guilty for leaving her behind, but he was too physically exhausted to do anything, but simply deiced he would come visit her later on.

Somewhere along the way between the gardens and the infirmary, the young maid had resigned to carrying Link on her back, and from there Link tittered in the land between the lands of sleep and awake.

“Will she be alright professor?” the maid said, her voice echoing up into the empty halls as they entered a new, more quite portion of the castle.

“She’ll recover, but it’ll take time. She’s already lost a lot of blood, and I fear it would’ve come to the worst if your fair lady hadn’t been there.”

“Indeed . . .” The maid said quietly.

The two women came to a pair of tall double doors carved out of a dark wood.

“Oh. . .” The maid frowned, as both her hands were busy holding Link up on her back, while the professor equally had her arms full with the unconscious girl. “Here, let me put my lady down for a moment and I’ll—.”

“There’ll be no need for that.” Purah cut in, walking up as close as she could to the door before yelling at the top of her lungs.

_“Mercedes!”_

The uneven rhythm of scrambling footsteps came from the other side of the door until a loud _THUD_ shook double doors for a moment before carefully creaking open.

“Y-Yes professor?” said a nurse, older than the maids, but younger than Purah or Vaati. She stood meekly in the doorway, rubbing her forehead before her face fell in shock. “Oh dear.” She said in a whisper, watching with wide eyes as Purah marched past. The nurse held the door open for the maid to follow through before letting it fall shut and trotting after Purah. “What . . . What in Hylia’s name happend?”

“I’ll explain later right. Right now I need you to attend to the young lady over there.” Purah said as she gingerly laid the unconscious girl down on a hospital bed and brought the privacy curtain closed with a sharp tug.

“Who?” Mercedes asked innocently, looking around in confusion before taking a proper look at Link and noticing that he was covered chest down in blood. “Oh dear!” she cried.

“Don’t worry! That’s not her blood!” the maid said quickly as she eased Link off her back and onto a bed.

“Really?” Mercedes asked, looking the boy over. “Then what could possibly be the . . . _OH!_ This is just a case of—!”

 _“UH UH UH!”_ Purah yelled, suddenly bursting back out of the curtain. “No jumping to conclusions! Your still in training, so do a full inspection!” And with the stern glare of a displeased instructor, Purah slinked back behind the curtain.

Mercedes rolled her eyes and grabbed her doctors bag, digging around for something until she pulled out a small paper sachet and carefully unfolded the top.

“What’s that?” the maid said in a hushed voice, leaning over Mercedes’s shoulder with a curious look.

“Miasma poisoning test. It’s the first part of any health inspection.” Mercede’s sighed. “Hold out your young please.” 

Link blinked at the woman sleepily, only vaguely aware he was being spoken to.

“Oh dear.” The maid frowned. “Here, maybe I can . . .”

The maid gently held Link’s face by his chin and pinched his cheeks with her thumb and index finger, encouraging his jaw to open.

“Perfect!” Mercedes laughed as she placed a small strip of paper on Link’s tongue and pressing his mouth shut. “Do you have a baby at home?”

“No, but when the princess refuses to eat her vegetables we resort to such tactics at.” The maid said, smiling for a moment before her face fell in discomfort.

“Whatever get’s the job done.” Mercedes said, smiling until she noticed the maid’s change in expresion. “Can you tell me what happend? Were you there?” she said in a hushed whisper,her voice concealed by the gentle hum of footsteps and work on the opposite side of the infirmary.

“T-The princess had another . . . outburst.” The maid said, staring at the floor with a dark look.

“But does that mean exactly? I’ve heard about them before . . . but I’ve never seen one myself since the princess never finds her self in need at the infirmary.” Mercedes said. _“Is it really as bad as they say?”_

The maid stared hard at the floor as if she were trying escape down through the floorboards.

“She . . . set the gardens on fire and . . . tore my friends arm off.” The maid said, her voice shaking. 

“How is that even possible? Is it— _Is it really true that the princess is actually—.”_

“It’s beyond my stature to speak of such things.” The maid said suddenly, as if it were a practiced reflex. “You wanted to know what happend . . . and I told you. Please don’t ask anymore of me.” She said quietly.

“Of course. I’m sorry.” Mercedessaid as she turned back to Link. “The test should be ready now.”

Mercedes slipped on a glove, pinched Link’s mouth open and extracted the slip, which looked exactly the same as it did when she had put it in, besides it being much more damp of course.

“Does she have miasma poisoning?” The maid asked.

“Of course she doesn’t. How on earth would anyone contract miasma poisoning when every inch of this castle is covered by the protection of a crystal. I was only doing the test because of protocol.” Mercedes groaned.

The nurse went through the rest of her examination in a breeze with practiced movements until finally, she set down her tools and lifted Link up by hooking her arms under the bend of his legs, while supporting him with her other hand on his back.

 _“As I had originally expected—!”_ Mercedes said loudly, turning her head back at the pulled curtain. “The young lady has a case of Mana withdrawal.”

“Mana? Is that some kind of nutrient for magicians?” the maid asked as she followed Mercedes across the infirmary.

“Not at all, or well . . . if it helps you to think of it like that, then I suppose. Mana is life energy all living beings have, whether or not they can practice magic, which means even people like you and me benefit from it.”

 _“Really?_ I had no idea.” The maid said, astonished.

“Yes, most people don’t realize it, but consolidated mana is used in Miasma poisoning treatments, and many other health tonics. But, you would be right mana in the sense that mana especially important for witches and wizards. The young lady here overexerted herself when healing your friend, and now she doesn’t have enough mana left to support her own personal being.” 

“Oh . . .” The maid sighed with a tinge of guilt.

“Don’t worry, she probably did it without thinking. Most practiced magicians know never to draw out too much, but on occasion it happens regardless, which is why we have treatments for it. And speaking of which could you get that curtain? It’s quite heavy.”

“Of course.” The maid said, at first grabbing the curtain with a single hand, before using both, and then her entire body to push back the bizarrely heavy fabric as if it were filled with sand.

“I told you it was heavy.” Mercedes said with an amused smirk as she ducked inside.

A gentle blue glow radiated out from the center of the concave room where a small crystal was embedded into the floor.Large cushions and thick, high pill carpets covered the dark hardwood below, while delicate shapes of blown glass hung from above on thin, nearly invisible lines of silver as they reflected the crystal’s light up into the ceiling, making the small room seem like a sort of alter, rather than something that would belong in a hospital.

Mercedes gently set Link down sitting up in front of the crystal, and he stared at it sleepily, thinking of how much it resembled the one outside Lon Lon Ranch, and in a strange way, the Great Faerie. The color of the crystal, and the color of her eyes were spot on, and a warm, soothing sensation washed over his skin as if he were being held in her embrace, and the two of them were both sinking down into a tub of hot bathwater. Link briefly felt his eyes closing and his head slump forward before falling into the arms of a deep sleep.

This meant Link was neither aware of himself when winding, tribal tattoos suddenly surfaced across his skin, nor the shocked expression on young maid’s face as she watched the tattoo take on a gentle glow, shining in the same light as the crystal 

_“_ What _. . . Is that?_ ” The maid gasped, rubbing her eyes in disbelief as the vague silhouette of faerie wings outlined in light hovered behind Link’s back like an appertain.

“You will speak of this to no one.” Professor Purah said coldly, entering behind the two laids as the heavy curtain fell closed.

“Oh!” the maid gasped, turning around in surprise.“I-I would never tell anyone about the witch—, I-I mean Link— I mean my lady’s—.”

“Of course _you_ won’t tell anyone.” Purah said, pulling the young maid into her arms. “Because _your_ not going to remember any of this.”

Before she could even react, Purah’s hand was already at the girl’s neck, pressing a quick injection needle into her skin, and in the next instant the young maid laid limp in her arms.

“Do you understand me?” Purah said, this time staring at Mercedes with a harsh glare.

“Of course I understand.” The nurse said, rolling her eyes in annoyance as she pulled back her headdress and long, snow white hair tumbled down over her shoulders. As she took in a deep breath for a brief moment, similar (though much more sparsely drawn out) tattoos appeared, flaring up for a moment in a bluish glow before disappearing back down into her skin. “Why would I betray my own kind?”

“I’m just making sure. Your still a trainee after all.” Purah said as the same tattoos appeared over her skin, flaring up with light before disappearing again in the rhythm of breath. “I don’t believe master Vaati is fully aware of the young hero’s identity yet, and we should keep it that way.”

“Is there anything you would have me do? Should I help him escape?” Mercedes said with a serious look. “If the so called witch was really the hero all along, that means he’s been trapped in that man’s study this whole time. He needs to get back to the Lost Woods immediately.”

“No.” Purah said promptly. “We are Sheikah, and we serve as guardians. Not instigators. Difficult as it may be . . . for now we can only wait, and watch the young hero seize his destiny alone.”

 _“But mistress!”_ Mercedes protested. “We must do something! The hero wastes away here in this accursed castle. I’m sure he would be able to lead us to all three of the lost great faires! With their power we could revive the great deku tree and—!”

 _“Enough!”_ Purah hissed. “A Sheikah does _not_ intervene with the great prophecy. That kind of meddling is _exactly_ what brought us here in the first place!”

 _“But mistress!”_ Mercedes protested.

“I said _ENOUGH!”_ Purah yelled so loudly it caused the nurse to flinch. _“_ Do not speak of this again, and continue on your work as if you had never witnessed this moment. You are dismissed.”

With an angry scowl, Mercedes marched off, taking one last mournful look at Link, as if she were leaving a close friend behind before dissipearing behind the heavy curtain.

Alone, Purah turned her gaze down at Link with a reluctant expresion, but despite herself she knelt down, gently pushing long strands of hair out of his face and tucking them behind his ear.

“Truely . . . I wish we could help. But we cannot make the same mistake twice, least we allow history to repeat itself for the last time.” Purah muttered to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Narrator voice* It was not at all, an easy walk in the park
> 
> Sorry for taking so long to update! This chapter was kina long, but guess who passed their summer exam!!! And im not enrolling in fall classes this year because that's just a bad move, so until i get a job hopefully chapters will come in more consistently! I really want to finish this fic (especially since it's going to be one year old in a few months) and give it a good end, but that won't be for a while since there's still a lot of story left to tell. 
> 
> Anyway thanks for reading, and thank you especially to those who comment, it really motivates me to get more chapters out. Even if it's something short like, "I like this", or "Great :)" every comment really mean a lot to me!


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